Mr Goldfish Strife
by Dragonbytes770
Summary: Cloud Strife is a "goldfish", not a real one, but he sure acts like one. He has no social life and is content with only his violin as company. Everything is normal until one day a mysterious woman falls from the sky holding a "stone". Through this one small event, Cloud's life is turned upside down and is faced with many plights before he can get to a place that he can call home.
1. Meet the Goldfish

_Hey guys! Welcome to my very first fanfic on ! I'm so excited! In the current moment I'm bracing myself for my last year of middle school and savoring the last two weeks of Summer. My hopes are that I'll be able to get these chapters out to you as fast as I possibly can, although I've heard that the homework load has grown over the Summer. Thank you all for using your precious time to read this and I am absolutely thrilled to see what you guys think of it! _

_Enjoy!_

**Mr. Goldfish Strife**

If you were to look very closely at your pet goldfish you wouldn't be surprised much, they swim around their little fish tanks round and round in circles, stopping occasionally to eat. If they're afraid of you they might cower in a dark place in their tank such as under their favorite rock or in the corner farthest away from you, and wait for you to go away. If they don't like you they might go over to the edge of the tank and puff up their little orange faces and shake their little mandarin fins as if to say, "I hate you, go away!" With only these few emotions and small space you would think that goldfish would be very bored all the time. If you try to cheer your pet up by giving them a friend they might try to eat the companion you give them. Throughout the years goldfish have become very domesticated, and are supposedly used to being kept in a tank all the time. Do you ever think that your pet would enjoy swimming with the bigger fish? Maybe with salmon, struggling up a treacherous river in a plight to continue on in their life cycle, or maybe they would rather be out in the ocean, fighting for their lives as they're being chased by much bigger fish who doesn't see them as a buddy as much as they see them as dinner. Perhaps your goldfish wishes to be free. You know that goldfish are actually quite smart? Maybe your fishy friend is plotting an elaborate escape plan right under your nose, have you ever thought about that? Now take a good look at Cloud Strife at the current moment, he's on his way back from the meat and sweets shop where he works, untying his apron and at the same time trying to hang onto that months paycheck. When he gets home he hangs his red and white striped apron up neatly onto the hanger next to the door. He kisses his mother "hello" and then scampers up the stairs anxciously to read a new chapter of "Getting a Social Life for Dummies". Directly after that he plays violin until supper and directly after supper he goes to bed. The next morning he wakes up, runs down the steps, kisses his mother "goodbye", straps on his red and white striped apron which smells of candied bacon, rushes out the door and heads to work. On his way a few girls might say "hello" to him, only for Cloud to keep walking and simply nod his head in reply. At work he labels the meat, and then directly after he labels the meat he labels the candy and after he labels the candy he heads home for the entire process to repeat itself. To him, friend requests are meaningless even though he was trying to create a sturdy social life for himself. If he was afraid of someone he would simply take a shortcut to avoid them instead of trying to sort it out or maybe face his fear. And when he got angry at someone his face would flare an alarming shade of beet red.

Remind you of anything? It should. Mr. Strife is a perfect example of a goldfish stereotype. Oh, and you shouldn't worry about your goldfish going AWOL on you. For example, Cloud will not leave home, saying that, "the world is a terrible place, and I don't want to be thrust into it!" And all this time I've been trying to get him to just settle down with a nice girlfriend or at least go to college, but all he wants to do is work at a meat and sweets shop for the rest of eternity!

"Mom, what are you doing in there?"

"Oh, nothing!" Mrs. Strife replied casually.

"Then who are you talking to?" The woman's son asked suspiciously.

"Oh, I'm not talking to anyone!"

"And why are you comparing me to a goldfish?!"

The boy walked into the room still in his red and white apron. On the top of his head was a spiky mess of blonde hair, but for some strange reason all of the girls swooned over it. In the center of his face rest two sparkling blue eyes, and below them is a a nice squared off jaw. His limbs were quite skinny but he had a tiny bit of bulk on him. The thin layer of fat beneath his ribs was all thanks to Mrs. Strife's cooking, always trying to get her son a bit more bulky. And on top of that paying for the gym membership that he never used.

"I was wondering when you'd get home" Mrs. Strife exclaimed happily as she ran over to hug her son.

"Hi mom." Cloud smiled as his mother bear hugged him, almost trying to squeeze the very life out of him.

"Honey, I can fit my arms around you."

"So?" Cloud asked casually.

"It means you're too skinny."

Cloud sighed and braced himself for another lecture.

"Girls don't want to be able to reach all the way around you, they want to feel comforted in your embrace" Mrs. Strife scolded. "You should really use that gym membership I got for you."

"Thanks but I'm not interested."

"You're not interested?!"

Cloud crossed his arms and growled.

"You could get a girlfriend and go to college!" His mother whined. "You could get a better paying job!"

"I don't want to go to college!"

Mrs. Strife leaned into the video camera her eyes widened, "See? This is exactly what I mean!"

"Why is that thing still running? And what were you doing with it in the first place?"

"I was trying to make a video to send to the college." Mrs. Strife whined. "I thought maybe if they saw how desperate I am, we are, they would give you a scholarship!"

"Oh mom…" Cloud sighed as he hugged his mom.

"I'm just so worried that this is as far as you're going to get in life!" His mother sobbed.

Cloud rested his chin on top of his mother's head and stared longingly off into the distance. He knew that his mother worried, and that every day she strived to get the very best for him. But sometimes what in her eyes was the very best, Cloud just didn't have in mind for himself.

"It's ok mom, I won't disappoint you."

Mrs. Strife looked up into her son's eyes and smiled.

"I know you won't, son."

She stepped away and wiped her nose and eyes with a handkerchief.

"I know you won't." She whispered.

_The next day…_

Cloud had just gotten home, he hung up his apron and called out his mothers name to see if she was home. He heard no reply so he figured she was out buying groceries, or maybe she was on one of those blind dates that she went on occasionally. Although Cloud disagreed with the whole premise of the idea of blind dating, she could get kidnapped so easily! He quickly stepped up the orange steps and up to his bedroom where he gently shut the door. He grabbed "Getting a Social Life for Dummies" off of the shelf and cracked open the cover to see which chapter he was on.

"The Approach." Cloud muttered as he carefully turned to page 63. "I'm terrible at approaching people!"

His eyes lay on the black print, trying to figure out how he was going to worm himself out of this step, and going through the people that he could approach the easiest. Well, there was his mom, that would be an easy one, perhaps one of his co-workers! No, they would be freaked out, he never really said anything besides "excuse me". He began reading, every word releasing more cortisol in his brain.

_The next step, the approach, is quite easy if you've followed through on the other steps. First you had to look around, see what kinds of people you would like to socialize with, the next was to see where they would be during the day and where you could meet up with them. Now that you've practically stalked them,_

Cloud thought to himself, _am I stalking my mom?...weird. _He continued reading.

_Approach is quite easy when you think about it, all you have to do is walk quickly toward the subject that you are trying to make friends with and then fire your ice breaker question. It helps to have one ready, there's a list below._

_-If you were a food what would it be?_

_-What's your favorite bird?_

_-Oh, you don't have a favorite bird, what's your favorite kind of insect?_

There was a pitter patter on the roof, but Cloud was so engulfed in reading through ice breaker questions, he passed it off for a few drops of rain, or maybe a squirrel.

_-What's your favorite candy?_

The pitter patter got louder...

_-Favorite book?_

...and louder...

_-If you were an animal what would it be?_

...even louder…

-_Favorite author?_

...and finally, the pitter patter got so loud that Cloud couldn't stand it anymore…

Cloud slammed the book of stupid questions shut and walked out the door in his bedroom. He stopped for a moment to listen, the pitter patter didn't sound like rain at all, it sounded more like person running, it had to be a person judging by the sound of the tiny thuds. Cloud slowly walked down the stairs, stopping on every creaky step to listen in for more thuds. When he got to the bottom of the orange steps he slowly made his way through the kitchen, weaving through the chairs, and sneaking to the front door. Cloud slowly creaked the white front door open and peered up to the roof, but there was nothing. The thuds couldn't just have been his imagination, could they?

"Hey, is anyone up there?" Cloud yelled up towards the roof. There was a moment of silence, and Cloud was puzzled, he was sure he heard something, and that something was loud and annoying! Was he going insane?

Just then a loud shriek echoed through the house and then without very much warning, the entire roof caved in.

_So, how did you like my first chapter? Don't worry, the action is right about to heat up! I'll try to get the next chapter out to you guys as soon as I can! Thank you for reading! :) _


	2. Two Very Confused Creatures

_Hello dearest readers! Me again! I've been working hard on this next chapter, and I promise you it has more action than the last one did (sorry about that btw). I hope to get some comments from you guys in the near future! _

_Happy reading :)_

**Chapter 2: **

Cloud let out a long shriek of terror as a dusty brick came flying towards his face. He whacked it away with his hand, only for it to change it's course of flight, and aim for the china cabinet. A loud crash made Cloud cringe for he knew exactly what it was. Although he was relieved that his nose wasn't broken and both of his eyes were still working.

"Is everything okay in there Mrs. Strife?" One of the next door neighbors asked through the walls, which were typically paper thin. It was een hard to sing in the shower without _someone _hearing you!

Cloud coughed a bit and replied in a very high pitched voice that he assumed sounded like his mother,

"No, I'm fine! I was just...uhh umm...cleaning the ummm...something!"

"Ok?" The neighbor asked skeptically.

"Cleaning the dishes!" Cloud squeaked. "I was cleaning the dishes and then, uh, I dropped one!" He lied.

"Do you want some help? I'm just a door away!"

"Oh, um, no thank you. That's really sweet of you but I, uh, I believe I can handle this myself." Cloud excused with an absolutely rotten look on his face as he eyed the broken china case and the hole in the roof. Not even to mention the fiber glass hanging out of the ceiling, quite a few bricks strewn across the floor, the termites, a few mice, and the dust, oh the dust!

"Are you sure?" The neighbor asked.

"Yes, yes I'm fine, uh, darling!"

Cloud was bitten by one of the furry disease carriers and yelped in pain as he examined the bite while trying to balance on one foot.

"Mrs. Strife, what's going on in there?" The neighbor asked as she walked around to the front door of the Strife home.

"Nothing!" Cloud squeaked.

While he was hopping around on one foot he jumped onto a very sharp piece of china which pierced his foot, causing him to unleash another yelp of pain.

"Alright, I'm coming in!"

"No!" Cloud shrieked.

He heard the doorknob turn and panicked.  
"Don't come in I'm-" He had to think fast as the door cracked open and a few mice lined up, ready to escape.

"I'm naked!"

The door froze. The line of mice was still, waiting anxiously for their chance to escape, although it ever came. The door started to close as the neighbor said.

"Oh, I understand."

Cloud winced and the neighbor continued.

"Have a good time Mrs. Strife." The neighbor finished as she shut the door.

Cloud made a face. Now his mother was a person who lounged around in nothing but her birthday suite, or even worse, and it was all his fault!

Cloud ran into the laundry room and grabbed a broom and dustpan to start sweeping up the mess, the cause he still wasn't so sure of (maybe it was a squirrel who had one too many acorns.) He sighed as he leaned on the broom, one of his toes lightly touching the ground and the other slightly tilted.

"What happened?" He asked himself.

Only, it was answered. Cloud heard a cough coming from the center of the pile of bricks and dust.

"Hello?" He asked nervously as he approached a piece of fiberglass that was moving. He prodded the fluff and dust with the end of his broom. The poke was answered by an annoyed moan.

With much caution, Cloud slowly advanced on the fiber glass, each step trying to avoid stepping on something that might make a noise. Slowly he raised his broomstick, always at the ready to defend himself if whatever was under there decided to pounce.

He gently slipped the end of the broom underneath the fiber glass.  
"One…" He whispered as he tightened his grip on the broom handle.

"Two…"

A small mouse took a good look at Cloud's shoe and everything about it was screaming, "home". It even smelled like home. And since this little guys house was destroyed only moments ago, Cloud's shoe was his best option. Without hesitation, the little mouse crawled onto the top of the smelly mound of leather.

Cloud was so nervous that he felt like tiny needles were being pushed into his ankles.

"Thr-!" He tried to make out, only it felt like something was crawling up his leg, so he began to dance around.

The little mouse was confused, why was his new home moving so much? He decided that maybe if he bit his home it would learn not to move so much.

"Yowch!" Cloud yelled as he felt a pinching pain on his left leg.

The mouse was even more confused because instead of his home cooperating by staying still, it was moving even more, and now he was dodging blows from whatever his home was hitting him with. The little mouse let go of his would be home and fell to the ground. He thought that he was free until he was lifted up into the air by his tail. This was a very confusing day for Mr. Mouse.

"Looking for this?" A voice chimed into Cloud's ear.

"Ahh!" Cloud screamed as he jumped backwards onto another shard of broken china.

The girl holding Mr. Mouse chuckled a bit as she set the little guy down. He scampered away, and stopped almost as if he was making a face at his almost home, before he made his way out of the kitchen window.

The girl took a look around and made a face. She took Cloud's hand and pulled him up.

"Hi!" She chirped. "The name's Tifa Lockhart!" She shook his hand roughly.

Cloud just looked at her and the rest of his surroundings with a puzzled look on his face. More had happened in this one hour than had happened in his entire life.

"And you are?" Tifa prompted.

"Oh, uh, yeah, I'm C-Cloud Strife, pleasure to meet you!"

"Looks like I made a bit of a mess, uh, here," Tifa offered as she shoved a wad of money. Her speech sped up. "Take this, buy a small business, turn it into a big business, become the President of whatever your company is, get rich, marry a French model named," Tifa pursed her lips like that of a Frenchman,."Roxine, and live the good life! How does that sound?"

Cloud stared down at the fake currency still wondering whether all this was real or not.

"Uhh, umm."

"Great!" The raven haired girl chirped as she ran out the door. "Pleasure meeting you, Mr. Strife! But now I must be going, thank you for your cooperation." The door swung close just as the girl reached the bottom of the steps and just as Cloud discovered that the currency she had given him was Monopoly money.

"Hey wait!" He yelled out the door as the girl sprinted away.

He heard her laugh as she got farther away.

"Sayonara sucker! Ha h-!"

Cloud thought that all hopes of getting some real money for fixing his house were running off into the distance, well until the girl spontaneously fell over. There was a loud gasp coming from the surrounding townspeople. Cloud rushed through the crowd.

"Excuse me, pardon me, coming through, thank you."

When he got through the masses of people surrounding the fallen girl he painstakingly lifted her up (with the help of the town doctor) and brought her back to Cloud's ruined house.

_The next morning…_

Tifa woke up in a bed with a few stuffed animals and a fluffy blanket, along with a cup of hot tea on the nightstand next to her bed.

"Good morning Miss Lockhart."Cloud yawned.

Tifa sighed.

"How the hell are you in my life again?"

Cloud ignored her.

"The doctor says you have epilepsy."

Tifa turned her head away from Cloud.

"Please, tell me something I don't know!"

"I think I liked you better when you were nicer." Cloud said.

"I think I liked you better when you were dumber."

"Want some tea?" Cloud offered as he held out a mug of tea to the grumpy house guest.

She looked at the tea with a frown and then looked up at Cloud with a scowl.

"I'm guessing that's a no, then." Cloud assumed as he put the mug back on the nightstand.

Just as Cloud set it down Tifa reached out, took it off of the nightstand, and put it to her lips with a smirk. She drank every last drop in one gulp and set the mug back down on the table.

"Has a strange taste." Tifa observed.

"Oh yeah, that might be the cyanide."

Tifa's eyes widened and she went into a long coughing fit. Cloud having to help her by slapping her on the back quite a few times."Just kidding!" He laughed. "You would've tasted almonds if there was any cyanide in that! I'm just kidding!"

"What did you do that for?"

"I just wanted to see how excitable you were."

Tifa crossed her arms, looked out the window and growled.

"Can I leave now?"

"Sure!"

Tifa's face lit up as she undid the covers and let her feet rest over the edge of the bed.

"Well, after you fix my house." Cloud added.

Tifa stared daggers at him and then patted herself down, seeming to be looking for something. Cloud didn't seem to notice until she looked up and glared into Cloud's soul.

"Where is it?"

"Oh, you mean that black thing you had? I gave it to my mother for her to make it into a necklace." Cloud kidded.

"No!" Tifa gasped, about to rip out Cloud's throat.

"No," Cloud smiled as he held up a black orb about the size of a marble. "I have it right here."

Tifa lunged at him, desperately grasping for the orb. Cloud, of course, with his wimpy arms fell over but kept the orb away from her.

"Why do you care so much about this thing anyway?"

"It's none-!" Tifa lunged for it. "Of your business!"

Unfortunately for Cloud, she succeeded and made a run for the door.

"Wait!" Cloud yelled after her as he chased after her.

Tifa ran triumphantly away from the scene, coveting her prize, and laughing at the bloke who decided to mess with her. With her speed he wouldn't be able to catch her even if he used a genie. but it just so happens that he did. After Tifa being so sure of herself she felt something go right under her leg and fell to the ground with a _thud_.

"No!" Tifa screeched as her little, smooth, black, crystalline marble prize slipped through the sewer grate.

_Well, that finishes another chapter of the adventures of our "fishy" friend once again. Please review and try to be nice :) Be expecting a new chapter in another few days or so. But until then, See ya!_


	3. At Least he was Trying to Help

_Hello again! Welcome back to my fanfic my dearest readers! I hope you enjoyed the last chapter, and I hope I made you laugh, or at least smile. Please enjoy this next one and I hope you all have a great day! And enjoy these last days of Summer :)_

_Happy reading!_

**Chapter 3:**

"That wasn't that valuable, was it?" Cloud asked timidly as he looked at the sealed shut manhole and the very frustrated girl trying to pry it open.

Tifa turned to look at him, her face as red as beets. She grabbed the collar of his shirt and screamed in his face.

"If it wasn't valuable then why do you think I'm so worked up about it?!"

"Okay," Cloud said as he looked into her face nervously and waving his palms. "Okay, I get it! Just wanted to make sure."

Tifa paced around the manhole thinking about how to get it open. Cloud looked at her quizzically, _why would she be so worried about something so small? It just looks like a normal marble to me?_

Meanwhile, Tifa noticed him "staring" at her and exclaimed,

"What!?" She had stopped pacing and her once angry face looked annoyed.

"Give me a minute." Cloud said as he brushed past the confused, angry, frustrated and annoyed Tifa.

Cloud timidly stepped onto the manhole and took a deep breath, closed his eyes and place his hands out in front of him so they looked like he was praying.

"What the hell are you doing?" Tifa asked in disbelief as she crossed her arms. Every subtle reminder that she was doomed "helped" her nerves a lot.

"I'm summoning my chi." Cloud answered, his voice sounding like it was in some kind of fake trance.

Tifa sighed and took a seat on the ground, knowing whatever this was, it was stupid, and going to hurt someone, and that someone was not going to be her!

"Do you even know _how _to summon chi?"

"I read it in a comic book!" Cloud assured her.

"Yeah, always listen to what you read in comic books…" Tifa muttered. "Hey, don't hurt yourself too badly!"

"And-!" Cloud summoned as he lifted his left arm and right foot.

Tifa rolled her eyes.

"Wiya!" Cloud yelled as he thrust his right foot down onto lid of the manhole. A jolt of pressure bolted through Clouds right leg right as his foot hit the metal.

Tifa gave herself a facepalm as Cloud danced around in pain, clutching his right foot.

"Congratulations Ninja Sam! You managed to break your foot!"

"It doesn't quite feel like it's broken." Cloud moaned, still clutching his foot.

Tifa walked over to the sewer grate a reached her hands down as far as she could, trying to get her precious black orb back.

Cloud sighed, still trying to figure out a way to help. It was his fault that she lost her marble, and possibly about to lose her marbles.

"I'll be right back!" Cloud said as he began to walk towards the hardware store.

"Ok." Tifa replied, her arms still lodged in between two metal bars of the sewer grate. "Don't kill yourself!" She called out after him.

_5 minutes later…_

Cloud walked triumphantly back with a crowbar that he borrowed from the hardware store manager. Tossing it up and down in his hand and smiling at his victory. The hardware store manager had never really liked him that much, so this was a lucky day for him. (Well, accept for having about to trudge through poo in search of an inch and a half wide marble.)

"Hey Tifa!" He shouted when he saw her silhouette in the distance, still digging around in the sewer grate for that tiny black orb. "I think I have something that can help!" When he said this he began to run towards her with the bar.

"Whatcha got?" She enquired.

"This." Cloud held out his crowbar. Tifa yanked it from him with excitement and ran over to the manhole.

She knelt down near the manhole and dug the end of the crowbar into the nearest crevice she could find. Tifa tugged on the crowbar, willing for this to work.

"Hey, do you want any help with that?" Cloud asked as he walked over to help his strangely new friend.

"I think-" She pushed down on the crowbar more. "I got it, thanks!" Tifa said as she popped the lid of the manhole off like a soda pop bottle. The toxic fumes of waste spilling out like carbonation.

Tifa got up and handed the mangled crowbar back to Cloud. He looked down at it with disappointment. He was hoping to get it back to the hardware store owner in good condition, but he was glad they got the manhole open.

Tifa stepped without hesitation into the stinking sludge pit.

"Well," She asked "You comin'?"

Cloud just stood at the edge of the manhole and let the fumes go up into a his face with a sour look.

"What? It's not like you're going to die of the filth?"

Cloud shook his head and growled as he slowly stepped onto the first step of the griming, slimy, stinky, filthy ladder. And all because he decided to trip her near a sewage grate. With each step and each bar that he had to grasp onto he cringed. And whenever he released his hand and the sound of sticky fingers reached his ears he gagged.

"By the way, thanks for all your help, Cloudy."

"The name's Cloud, and you're welcome." He gagged.

The two stepped down, Tifa first, and then Cloud, stepping into a grimy newspaper. He frantically shook it off, landing in the river of poo and gently floating away.

"Ok, what direction was the sewage grate in?" Tifa asked, just now figuring out how poorly their plan was put together.

"Uhhh…"

"Here, I'll go this way," Tifa said pointing to her left, down the tunnel with the river of poo was running in and the mice were running down. "And you can go that way." She finished pointing towards the right, the path that led through the moss and the cockroaches.

Cloud was a little happier because he wouldn't have to deal with the mice as much, but cockroaches weren't a whole bucket of fun either.

"See you in a bit then!" Tifa said as she marched off down the left path.

Cloud turned to the right and gulped as a little brown creature dropped from some hanging moss. He looked back at Tifa who was walking away. As he stepped forward he carefully dodged the hanging moss, in fear that a little critter would end up on his head.

_This smell is never going to leave my nostrils… _He thought. _How did I get myself into this? I'm supposed to be at work right now, not wandering around in the sewers! Why am I here? Oh yeah, I just had to trip her, nice! Right now I could be labeling candy, but instead I'm trudging through poo! Cloud, you idiot!_

He stopped for a moment because he heard a few footsteps.

"Huh? Tifa, is that you?"

There was no answer.

"Tifa?"

Still, no answer.

"Probably some stupid rat…" He mumbled as he kicked a rock across the stone of the sewer floor. He dug his hands into his pockets and kept on walking. Cloud stared at the ground, scanning it for any black marbles. He took a few more steps, concentrating on every small object in the tunnel, and then he heard it, the scream.

Cloud sprinted towards the sound of the shriek, it had to be Tifa, there was no one else in the sewers besides them (hopefully not.) But while he was running, something caught his eye, something black and marble-ish looking.

"Wouldn't expect to see _you _here, Miss Lockhart." A chilling voice echoed from out of the dark.

"Funny, the thing is that I would expect to see _you_ here, you filthy slime wad!" Tifa growled at the figure.

"Well there's no need to be nasty-!" The figure soothed.

"Why wouldn't there be? You killed my father right in front of me and then forced me to be your slave. I have every right to hate you!"

"You may have every right to hate me, but that doesn't mean that you have the right to break our contract!" The shadow boomed.

"I was sick of doing the wrong thing for the sake of a deal. I'm done with you!" Tifa shouted as she turned away from where the figure's voice was coming from.

The tall shadow stepped out of the dark to where he was right behind her. Tifa could feel her heartbeat quicken and her mouth going dry. She tried to hold it in and keep a neutral face, but there were somethings that she couldn't control, one of which was blood flow. All of the blood in her face practically disappeared and her cheeks turned white.

"You made deal with me, Miss Lockhart. You gave me your life in trade for the lives of everyone else in your village."

"I don't care." Tifa said as casually as she could.

The figure squeezed her shoulder with a cold hand causing her to wince.

"That means that your life is mine, and I can do whatever I want with it. I could take it if I wanted to. " He whispered closely into her ear, causing her to freeze.

"Fine," She retorted, regaining the ability to move her legs. "Kill me then." She walked out a few steps in front of him.

"If you just give me the black mat-!"

"Kill me, Sephiroth!" Tifa interrupted as she spread her arms out.

Sephiroth sighed, looking down at the ground with disappointment.

"You understand that acting all noble now isn't going to make up for what you did in the past!"

"Just kill me already!"

"Alright." He finished as he readied his blade to run it through Tifa's vulnerable abdomen.

He brought it up, Tifa having a look on her face of triumph mixed with fear. For her, this seemed like the end but she was accepting it with open arms.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, waiting to die when a familiar voice shouted from the shadows.

"Stop!"

_7 minutes earlier..._

Cloud had followed her voice all the way down the tunnel. There was another person there, his voice much deeper and much colder than Tifa's. The thought of a person like this just made him run faster.

He jumped over a few mice and accidentally kicked one into the river of poo out of fright. When Cloud reached the point where he could see both figures he stopped and pushed himself up against the wall to hide in the darkness. The man who had confronted Tifa was tall man with a black coat, long silver hair, and even longer sword about the width of a ruler, a very stern face, and a pair of piercing jade eyes to go with his sharp features. Cloud inched along the wall until he got into a closed off room with a huge hole in the wall so that Cloud could get a perfect view of the scene.

The tall guy came up behind her and whispered in her ear, something that Cloud couldn't make out, but judging by the look on Tifa's face, this guy was no friend.

_Come on Cloud, help her! _He thought, half of his brain saying "yes" and the other saying "no".

_I can't, I'm so wimpy I couldn't help anyone!_

_Well, you can at least help in some way. For example, throw the marble thing at him._

_I can't throw the marble thing at him! It's the entire reason we got into this mess in the first place! _

_No, you're the one who got her into this mess, not the 1 and a half inch wide bouncy ball!_

_That doesn't necessarily mean that I have to get her out of it!_

_Yes, it does!_

_No it doesn't!_

_Yes it does!_

_No it doesn't!_

_Ok, you want to have friends, right?_

_Yes._

_Well, she's the only friend you've got and you're just going to let her die here?!_

_She's not going to die…_

Sephiroth readied his blade to run it through Tifa's abdomen.

Both sides of Cloud's brain: _Ahhhh!_

_Do something already! She is going to die if you don't do something ASAP!_

Sephiroth drew his sword back, ready to strike.

_Ah! To hell with everything! _Cloud's mind raced as he ran out of the hole in the wall and in front of the incoming blade.

"Stop!" He screamed, jumping in front of his only friend. Right as the blade connected with his abdomen he fell into Tifa's arms. His entire face went white as he gasped with pain.

"Cloud, you idiot!" Tifa screamed at him in utter shock.

Sephiroth decided to leave, he hated sentimental crap like this.

The once gray stone floor of the sewer was stained crimson. Cloud's eyes were wide with pain and gasped, more blood spilling out of his fatal stab wound. Cloud had seconds to live, but not enough strength to tell Tifa what he had found, he didn't even have the strength to show it to her.

_Everything was for nothing, everything in my life was practically for nothing. _Cloud thought.

_I just wish that I could've made someone proud mom, dad, Tifa even, but especially mom._

With those final thoughts Cloud closed his eyes, and in the sewer beneath the town he had grown to love, Cloud stopped breathing, his heartbeat ceased, and he died.

_Hey guys, please don't murder me?_

_I promise you that this story isn't over, but I do have a reputation with my friends, I kill off characters faster than you can say, "Jack!" I hope you enjoyed this chapter though :)_

_(Btw, if you found any puns in there (there's a few) they were 100% pun intended :)_

_Please comment and you should be seeing another chapter from me in a few days!_

_-Dragonbytes :)_


	4. Meeting the Clowns

_G'day my dearest readers! Could you find my puns? (There's only, like, two :) If so, please tell me in the comments! I had fun writing that last chapter (especially the mental fight!) I hope that you had fun reading it!_

_Now, without further delay, let's see what happens next!_

**Chapter 4:**

Everything was the brightest shade of white you could imagine, like really, really, really white, almost clear white. Slightly shiny, and...soft? Wait, it felt like material, Heaven's not supposed to feel like material! And it smelled like...laundry detergent? Ok, something is really wrong here. He couldn't move either, why couldn't he move? You can move in Heaven, right? Everything is wrong! He's supposed to be dead! He died! He was stabbed by a psychotic thirty year old man with silver hair. He was officially declared dead by life when his heart stopped beating! What is going on?

Cloud began to squirm through the leather straps that were tied around his wrists. His breathing quickened. He was breathing? Wait, but he couldn't feel his heart beating, but he was breathing? What?!. He kept on trying to wrench his hands from the leather straps around them. He was sweating, so he was alive, but his heart wasn't beating so he wasn't! This was even more confusing than the day...wait, what day...he couldn't remember anything. He didn't even know who he was or what had happened to him, all he wanted to do was get out of whatever and wherever he was!

All of a sudden Cloud was in a n even brighter light, something shining in his eyes, and it was real this time. And he was cold, the sheet that had been covering his head was now gone, and all he was wearing was his boxers. Cloud squirmed as hard as he could, but everything he did was futile towards his escape. And then a figure appeared in his vision, although he was quite blurry.

"Why hello, test specimen!"

As the figure walked closer Cloud could make out a pair of glasses, slightly dirty lab coat with who knows what, and a very greasy looking black pony tail trailing down the figure's back.

"Huh?" Cloud asked, squinting from the bright lights in the lab.

"I said, hello!"

"Oh," Cloud said, still just as confused as he was in the first place. "Hi."

"You now work for me!" The figure commanded. Cloud couldn't remember anything, and now someone was telling him who he was working for, splendid!

"Ok."

"Hmm, I'm surprised you're so compliant."

"I just don't know what's going on. Where am I?"

The figure sat up, seeming to be intrigued. _This might be fun! _The figure thought.

"Well, you're name is," The figure looked closely at Cloud through his thin glasses, making him feel a bit uncomfortable.

"Goldfish!"

"Goldfish?" Cloud (Goldfish) asked.

"Yes, your new name is Goldfish. And you work for me, in the circus-"

"Circus?"

"Yes, the circus. Now stop interrupting me!"

"You'll be working as a lion tamer."

"As a lion tamer?"

"Correct, you'll be paid with food and lodging."

"Why lion taming?" Goldfish asked, still strapped to the table, but tilting his head a bit to get a better look at the figure.

"Well haven't you seen yourself?" The figure asked.

Goldfish looked down at himself, but still couldn't see much through the leather straps. But, he apparently had abbs, wait, abbs? When did that happen? Oh, yeah, he can't remember...anything…

Biceps, and a pair of pecs too! What?! Cloud didn't think much of it, because he just thought that wherever he came from and whoever he was had them in the first place.

"I found you, uh, _half _dead in the center of Nibelheim."

"Nibelheim? Where's that?"

"Um, a far away place."

"That doesn't explain anything."

"Well, you wouldn't really care anyway...here," The figure said, unstrapping the leather straps around Goldfish's wrists and ankles. "How about you look at yourself in the mirror."

Cloud got up and looked at himself. Goldfish looked at himself squarely in the mirror. He was ripped! Only, again, he wasn't surprised. If a person who had known him before the incident down in the sewers saw him now, they might faint from the shock. The amount of muscle he had gained was ridiculous, and the amount of height that he had grown was even more so, considering that it had only been one month. Although, Goldfish thought nothing of it, he thought that normal people looked like this, and that the strange little man was just abnormal.

"And that is why you'll be working as a lion tamer, and you'll be working for me!"

"But, who are you anyway?" Cloud asked, still observing his muscles casually.

"My name is Professor Hojo, but you can call me Master."

"Alright, Professor." Goldfish smirked.

Hojo marched out of the room angrily, growling, "Next time I'm just going to tell them my name is Master, pfft…"

"Wait, where are you going?" Goldfish called after him.

"You don't want to go out in front of the others in just your underwear, do you?"

"Others?"

A few minutes later Hojo walked in with a torn up pair of black boots, black pants, on the pants was a thick leather belt and then on the top of the stack was a purple sweater (purple?) and a pair of suspenders. Hojo shoved the stack of clothes and boots into Goldfish's arms.

"Put those on and I'll be you out here to introduce you to your, uh, _co-workers._"

"But, why purple?"

"It was the only one we had, the other one was worn by our other lion tamer, that one met the same fate as it's wearer."

"What happened to him?"

"Oh, that's none of your concern! Now, go change!" Hojo said as he pushed Goldfish towards the closet.

_Just a few minutes later…_

"I look ridiculous…" Goldfish whined.

"That's the whole point!" Hojo excused.

Cloud looked at himself with a frown, pulling slightly at the edges of his sweater as if it was uncomfortable.

"Come, follow me! I know a lot of people that will be very happy to meet you!" Hojo ordered.

Goldfish was led out into a musky hallway covered in paint splotches, dirt, dust and had the smell of unwashed socks. From farther down the hallway he could hear voices, although not all of them sounded friendly. Other than the shouts down the hall, everything was eerily quiet, a slight humming sound coming from the air conditioning.

"Uh, Professor, why did you say that there would be a lot of people that would be happy to meet me?" Cloud asked, trying to keep up with Hojo's fast pace.

"You were brought in here a month ago."

"I was sleeping for an entire month?" Goldfish asked right as they were about to turn a corner in the hallway. Hojo opened his mouth to explain, but another voice interrupted him, a much deeper, and had a brute sound to it.

"Me Azul." The figured said monotonically in his deep and dumb sounding voice.

"Ah, Azul! Perfect timing!" Hojo exclaimed. He looked over to the blonde on his right and introduced Goldfish to the big, blue, dumb, bear creature. "Goldfish, this is Azul."

Goldfish held a hand out for him to shake it, but when the only thing he did was sneeze a fly out of his nose and then snort up the remaining mucus, he took his hand back to his side.

Then Hojo looked over to Azul again. "Azul, this is Goldfish."

Azul looked down at him with a blank look on his face. His big pink nose sniffing a bit, and the rest of his face just resting loosely on his skull. His blue fur was matted and whenever you looked at him the word "bigfoot" immediately sprung up into your head. Hojo was cringing at the sight, but Goldfish only smiled, he hadn't smelled anything that nice yet, besides laundry detergent, and in order to really smell the bad, you have to know what the really good smells like.

"Me Azul." Azul repeated just as dumbly as he had the first time.

Hojo looked at the creature with a sour look on his face, but after a few seconds he pulled it together.

"Azul here was a failed experiment of the strength thought that it would make him stronger, and it did! It just took a few tolls on his mind. So, I just put him to work lifting weights, he'll do whatever you tell him to do." He paused for a moment, as if feeling bad for his past failure. " And you," Hojo said while poking a bony finger in the middle of his chest. "Are the successful outcome of the strength serum."

Hojo walked ahead.

"Me Azul." Azul said one more time as the two moved on.

"Shut up you stupid imbecile!" Hojo barked, a bit tired of hearing the strange creature say the same thing over and over again. Goldfish cringed at the insult, even though it wasn't targeted at him.

"Ok." Azul said in his monotone voice and walked away, back to his room, every step making a rumbling noise and making the floor shake a bit.

"You were a perfect test specimen! And wouldn't you believe that before this you weren't even over one-hundred pounds! The scrawniest thing I'd ever seen!"

"What happened to me?" Goldfish enquired.

"Well, uh, we just found you and you were wounded...but not that badly! We patched you up and then shot the strength serum right through your veins!"

"And then what happened?"

"You blew up like a balloon!" Hojo gestured with his hands what a balloon would look like if it was being blown up.

Goldfish faced forwards once again and was quiet, thinking about the things that he'd just heard. He never recalled being wounded, or ever being scrawny, all he could remember was the white sheet over his head, and nothing else!

They rounded another corner and went through a big, noisy, leaky steam pipe. Hojo passed through it like it was absolutely nothing, but Goldfish stopped for a moment before he passed through. Whatever this hot stuff was, it didn't look safe. But, after Hojo beckoned him to come to the other side, he had to obey. And in doing so, he found out that that the hot stuff, wasn't as hot as you might think.

"I'll get someone to fix that later." Hojo said with a finger on his chin, as if he was making a mental note to himself.

Hojo stepped in front of a room with three people in it. One was a girl with a light brown ponytail with a bandana around it, she wore a white blouse with a vest over it, and was wearing a pair of very baggy pants that were all stuffed into a pair of boots. Across from her, sitting on his bunk bed was a man who closely resembled a bouncy ball. He was wearing a cherry red vest and a blueberry blue pair of pants, and on top of his head was a little tuft of black hair. And above him on the top bunk was a man in army print camouflage from head to toe, with a little tin dog tag around his neck that read, "Colonel Biggs". He was tossing a tennis ball up and down in his palm, and right next to his bed, hanging on the wall was a glass case full or porcelain ponies.

the girl with the chestnut brown hair was bickering with the bouncy ball about his snoring habits.

"Everyone shut up!" Hojo boomed in his high pitched monkey voice from the doorway. Immediately everyone became silent. Hojo calmed himself down and then began speaking.

"Biggs," The man on the top bunk looked up. "Wedge," The bouncy ball nodded his head slightly. "Jessie," the girl sitting on the bed across from the bouncy ball stopped glaring daggers at Wedge for a second to look over to her master. "Meet our newest member of the circus, Goldfish."

Jessie got up and stepped over to Goldfish and stuck out her hand.

"Hi, the name's the Jessie!"

Cloud took it timidly only to have his own hand shook roughly. Biggs lifted his head slightly and said "Hey." And Wedge nodded and greeted him, "Hello."

"Goldfish is such a strange name!" Wedge blurted out.

"Shut it Wedge!That's not very nice!" Jessie ordered.

"You're not my mom!" Wedge retorted.

"How about we check on these guys later." Hojo offered, which Goldfish had no problem with, nodding his head and following the professor farther down the hall. But they could still hear the three bickering.

When they walked a bit further down the hall and Hojo pulled a ring of keys out of his pocket.

"What are those for?" Goldfish asked as they reached a door with a million and one locks on it.

"You'll see." Hojo said, pushing a silver key into the main key hole, unlocking it, and then proceeding to unlock the chain lock, the padlock connected to a chain, dead bolt, cam lock, jimmy proof deadbolt, and finally, the thumb scanner. The door popped open and they stepped in. What they saw was a clown in a straightjacket with white hair that was all tied back in a bun and a devilish grin pasted onto his face with face paint. He was sitting on the floor of his padded room and was banging his head against the padded wall saying over and over again.

"...world domination...world domination…"

"What happened to him?" Goldfish asked.

"Well he was supposed to be a clown, and he wasn't funny, so I gave him the funny serum..and...well...something funny happened to his brain."

"What's his name?"

"Kefka, he hasn't been working, but we have to take care of him anyway! In my opinion he's a waste of my precious time! And, he drives everyone else insane."

Just then a very angry sounding voice echoed from the other room.

"KEFKA! I am about to murder you!"

"Oh, I was wondering when she'd show up!" Hojo said casually.

"...world domination…" Kefka mumbled.

A woman with curly blonde hair wearing a flowy pink dress burst in through the doors.

"Kefka! I have told you _one thousand times _to be quiet!" The girl began.

"That's Terra," Hojo whispered to Goldfish.

"...world domination…"

"She doesn't like Kefka very much!" Hojo continued with a giggle.

"I have been trying to focus on my cards and you're in here banging your head against the wall!" Terra screamed.

"...world domination…"

"She's also the circus magician." Hojo whispered. "I put her next to this guy just to see what would happen, and it's quite entertaining!"

"Are you even listening?!" Terra continued on in her angry rant.

"...world domination…"

"If you don't stop then I'll freeze your mouth closed!" She threatened.

"...world domination…"

"I will!" Terra continued to "intimidate" Kefka.

"...world domination…"

"She does this every day, comes in here and threatens him." Hojo whispered. "But she's always too nice to carry them out."

"I really will!" Terra threatened once again.

"...world domination…"

Her face had turned beet red and it looked like she was holding her breath.

"Ok fine!" She burst.

"I told you so." Hojo whispered.

"But I'll get you someday!" Terra finished as she was about to make her grand exit, but Hojo grabbed her arm and turned her around. She blew a hair out of her face and looked at Goldfish.

"Terra, this is Goldfish, our new lion tamer."

She smiled sweetly and then stormed off.

"Uhhh, maybe another time. She's just not in the best mood." Hojo encouraged.

After Hojo had locked the rest of the locks on Kefka's dorm (cell) they made their way down the hallway to meet the last member of the circus group.

Hojo opened up the next door and a very strong scent of incense came out making Goldfish cough.

"Scarlet, are you here?" Hojo asked, for he couldn't see a thing through the smoke from the incense.

"I'm over here!" A sly voice said from the corner.

The smoke opened up to reveal a woman in a very revealing red dress with a red cloth draped over her head. Her dress was low in the front and had a large slit up the side. Cloud slowly walked forward.

"Please, sit." The woman offered.

"Here," Hojo coughed. "How about you take this on alone. It's too smokey in here for me!" He kept on coughing until he heard the door close. Goldfish's only protection had left him. He gulped, but slowly walked over to the table and pulled out a chair. The entire room was covered in draping cloths, candles, incense burners and lots and lots of tassels!

"My name is Scarlet, yours?" She asked while shuffling some cards.

"Um, G-Goldfish." He gulped.

"Why, there's no need to be afraid, darling, I'm merely going to tell your fortune."

"Oh, no, I don't really need-" Goldfish said as he got up to leave, but Scarlet caught his leg with her high heel and dragged him back down to a sitting position.

"Of course you do, darling!" She said, her voice very high pitched.

Scarlet set out four cards and pointed to each one of them with a long, red fingernail. But Goldfish wasn't listening. He just sat there sweating, the greatest fear that he had faced while he was there. Scarlet was rubbing his leg with her high heel and although Cloud was somewhat new to this world, he didn't think that it was the cleanest of activities. So, not wanting to be mauled by an angry fortune teller, he held his ground.

Well, he held his ground until Scarlet's foot went a bit too far up his leg, he just couldn't stand it anymore. Goldfish got up, said,

"Thank you for the fortune!" Very abruptly and then rushed out of the room. If he so much as smelled incense again he thought he might vomit. Of course, he left Scarlet angry, but it was a matter of life and death.

"Ah, I was wondering how long you could stand it in there?" Hojo said as Cloud ran out of the room. Although, he barely had enough time to breathe before he was dragged off again.

"Who else do I have to meet?"

"Your roommate." Hojo answered.

They reached another room, but this one wasn't the usual door. It had a series of locks like Kefka's, but the entire door was made out of steel, and was very thick. It also had bars on the window Hojo got out another ring of keys to unlock this one and as soon as the door opened Hojo pushed Goldfish in and closed the door.

"Good luck!" he said through the door just as he was about to lock it.

"Wait!" Goldfish shouted, tugging at the door handle, but it was already too late, the door had been locked.

Goldfish got up his eyes wide, trying to see in this dark room. It was pitch black and all he could see were the slight outlines of the bars surrounding him in this cage. He searched around for something with his hands, patting the ground and walls for a light switch or a candle and a match. After a while of searching he didn't manage to find any matches of light switches, but he did manage to grab something furry. Accept, it wasn't a blanket.

Goldfish tugged a bit at the fur, just to make sure that it, in fact, wasn't a blanket, only to hear a very unpleasant sounding growl in return.

_Well, that ends yet another chapter! I hope that you enjoyed it, and I hope that you found another pun that I slipped in here! School starts on Wednesday so I will (sadly) not be able to get these chapters out to you as quickly as I would like to! But anyways, I hope that you liked this enough to comment, and even if you didn't like this enough to comment, please comment anyway :)_

_Until next time!_

_-Dragonbytes :)_


	5. Rule Breakers, Money Makers

_Good evening, my dearest readers! I wonder if you could guess who was making that growl? Hmmmmm? Well, if you've ever played FFVII then you'll probably know :) Sorry that this chapter is a bit later than the rest! But, as I said, the school year has started and I just went on a trip! I hope that you liked my crazy characters in the last chapter, because I had a whole lot of fun writing and coming up with them! _

_Enjoy!_

**Chapter 5:**

Goldfish wondered if it was healthy if a big red creature was on top of you. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, but one thing that he did know, was that it was unpleasant. How much this thing weighed, he hadn't the slightest idea, but he was sure that it was more than him. It was still quite dark inside the cage, so Goldfish couldn't see much besides a very large figure over him, and the red paws that were pinning his shoulders down. Whatever it was, was slobbering all over Goldfish's face. Goldfish gulped, he had never been put into this situation before, and he most certainly wasn't enjoying it. The beast snarled and barred it's teeth right in front of Goldfish's face.

"H-hey!" He said nervously. "Why can't we settle this like, uh, whatever I am?"

"You're a man you blundering idiot!" The beast growled.

"It speaks!" Goldfish observed.

"Of course I speak! What do you think I am?!" The creature barked.

"Umm…"

"I'm a dog!"

"Well then what am I?" Goldfish asked, still pretty calm, never really trying to get the dog off of his chest, he didn't know this, but with the strength that he had just been given, he could lift up five strange dog creatures. Although, if he did that he wouldn't exactly be getting on it's good side, now would he?

"A man! I already told you that!"

"Would you mind getting off of me?" Goldfish asked.

The dog was surprised, none of his other trainers had been this nice to him, but he still wasn't going to let his guard down.

"Yes!"

"Ok, then what's your name?"

"My name? What do you care?" The dog asked, very surprised as he eased the pressure that he was putting on Goldfish's shoulders. Not even Professor Hojo cared what his name was.

"You are my roommate, I would like to know your name."

"It's Number 13" The dog growled as he got off of Goldfish completely.

Goldfish was silent. The dog walked over to what looked like a small stack of hay and lay down. "Okay, I know it's not the greatest name in the world, but I can't really change it, can I?" He lay his head down on his paws disappointedly.

Goldfish, still sitting on the ground decided that an unhappy roommate was an unpleasant roommate, and tried to cheer him up.

"You could change it."

"Huh?" The dog said, pulling his head up slightly.

Goldfish scooted closer to his furry friend.

"Well, uh, what about Clifford?"

He growled.

"Ok, ok, next!" Goldfish took a moment to think. "Mr. Dog?"

The dog took a moment to glare daggers at him.  
"Alright, then how about Red?"

Red lay down his head on his paws.

"Alright, my name is Red, but if you even think of calling me Clifford…" Red bared his teeth and growled.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

_The next day in the cafeteria…_

Goldfish was determined to sit as far away from Scarlet as he possibly could, landing him in the furthest corner of the cafeteria with his newfound friend, Red. The entire room was filled with mostly guards and maintenance people, although Goldfish was surprised at the amount of guards there were at a circus. Even though he had never been to a real circus before, or at least he couldn't recall ever going to one, he thought that the amount of security was a bit rash.

"Why is there so much security?" Goldfish asked, stuffing an oversized roll into his mouth.

"Eat much?" Red laughed.

"No, seriously." He said gulping it down.

"Well, they say that it's because of the circus clowns and such, you know, people who work here. You would understand that because of people like Kefka and Azul, but they wouldn't need this much _just _for those two. And the circus is running out of money, maybe they're just here to kick us out when we go broke!"

"Maybe, but couldn't they just do that when it's time to kick us out?"

"Well, that time is coming soon, the professor is doing everything he can to save money, get more money, cheat people, etc... I think-!"

Just then, Jessie came over and sat right next to Cloud, setting her lunch tray down hard on the table making a loud noise and interrupting him.

"They say that it's because of the experiments, and that one time a test subject who was presumed to be in the safe zone mysteriously turned into a bloodthirsty beast a few weeks later. He went through the whole circus in one night, killing everyone, even his friends. They say that once he was apprehended by the government he was scheduled to be executed, but he escaped! And he's still wondering around the city of Midgar, planning his revenge!"

"Why are you here?" Red asked in a monotone voice.

"Uh, I'm a human being!" Jessie retorted.

"Wait, what was the experiment?" Goldfish asked anxiously.

Jessie looked deep into his eyes as if she was trying to read his mind.

"A man given strength serum." She said it slowly, letting the words slide off her tongue in an eery fashion, scaring the crap out of poor Goldfish.

She then tore into a raging fit of laughter after seeing Goldfish's face, a look of pure terror smeared all over it. She patted him on the shoulder before she walked away.

"You're too gullible!"

"Quit scaring the newbie!" Red shouted after her. "Don't listen to her, she's just trying to scare you. That story is just an old wives tale anyway." He finished as he lapped up the rest of his juice. Goldfish didn't know whether or not dogs could have juice, but apparently they could.

Goldfish returned his vision to his lunch, but it was immediately deterred from it when Jessie ran up to the table.

"Hojo wants to see you in his office, by the way!" Directly after she scampered off to whatever mischief awaited her.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

_In Hojo's office…_

The professor was still dressed in his usual outfit; a slightly dirty labcoat, pocket protector, greasy black ponytail, and needle thin glasses lenses.

"Now," He began in his monkey voice. "We need to devise a plan for the circus act."

"But, we're, uh, I'm a lion tamer, I thought that we just went with the flow of things, that's what makes it a show!"

"Well, he's not exactly an ordinary 'lion' now is he?" Hojo said as he patted Red on the head, only to receive a growl in return. Hojo made a face, but then got back on topic quickly.

"We don't want to hurt you, I was thinking that you just did the traditional chair and whip."

"But, I don't want to actually hurt him!" Goldfish exclaimed.

"You're not going to hurt him, silly! You're just going to make it look like you're hurting him!"

Hojo got up and walked over to a presentation board, he picked up a n antenna and slowly pulled it out until it reached it's full length. When it did manage to reach it's full length Hojo whipped it up so it make a smacking sound when it hit the board. On the board was a picture of a lion and what appeared to be a lion tamer. The lion tamer (with spiky hair, of course) was holding a chair and a whip. The lion, as depicted in the picture was growling and circling it's "victim" as the tamer was readying his whip. Now, in the picture it showed that you don't actually whip the lion, you simply aim to the side of the lion, and Red, having done this in the past will act as if he has been hit.

"Although," Hojo warned. "If you do hit him then there's nothing we can do to help 's what happened to our last tamer if you really wanted to know."

Goldfish gulped.

"Do we have a plan?" Hojo asked.

"Wait, that's it?" Goldfish asked.

"Ummm, yes."

"There's no thrill to it! It's just a man and a lion! That's no show!"

"What do you mean it's no show?! People love to see this kind of stuff, there's no extra expense or 'thrill' as you like to call it, involved!" Hojo said, his tone getting a bit harsher.

"Why would people pay money to see that? You're trying to raise more money, right? Then you'd better change things up a bit or no one is going to want to watch the show!" Goldfish shouted, pushing Hojo into a deeper debate that he, quite frankly, didn't want to deal with.

"I know that we need more money! You don't have to lecture me about that! You'll do what I say, a, uh, because I said so!" Hojo finished as he stomped out of the room, leaving a very disappointed Goldfish still sitting at his desk.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

There Goldfish was, in the middle of a cage, in the middle of an arena, in the middle of a circus. Everything was as planned, he had a chair and a whip and he was trying his very best not to hit Red. Red was playing his part, growling, snarling and baring his teeth, dripping a bit of foam that was spilling out of his mouth due to a special, little, foam pill that he had been given by the professor. The others, having already completed their acts, stood in the main tunnel that led to the arena, watching anxiously. Well, really only Biggs, Wedge and Jessie were paying any attention. Azul was off somewhere discovering the many wonders of the insides of his nose, Kefka, of course, was in his cell banging his head against the wall. Terra was in her room practicing her routine for the next circus, either that or yelling at Kefka some more. And Scarlet was too busy paying attention to her nails then to pay attention to a man who ignored her flirting mechanisms. Even Biggs and Wedge weren't paying all that much attention, they were at first, but then got too wound up in an intense game of "Crazy 8s". Now it was only Jessie, anxious to see what would happen next.

Goldfish scrounged up all of the information that he had absorbed from Hojo's presentation board, although there wasn't really that much to remember, and remembered the circling, and the whipping. He knew not to hit Red, he wouldn't even do that if he could, and he couldn't do it if he tried his very best. A friend is a friend, even if you've only known them for a few days.

But, it just so happened that Goldfish's hand slipped, and this one slip of his hand made the whip lash curve and strike Red on his left paw. In surprise,Goldfish dropped both his chair and his whip in surprise and backed up to the corner of the cage. There was no way out, Professor Hojo had the keys and he wasn't going to let either of them out until the curtain had closed.

Red circled around Goldfish, ready to pounce at any given moment. In the main tunnel, Jessie was biting her nails so hard that little chunks were falling to the ground. Biggs and Wedge were now a bit interested, plus they had just finished another round, so they stood beside Jessie to watch. Scarlet, now interested that the man that had ignored her flirting mechanisms was about to be torn to shreds like a gladiator who got the thumbs down from the emperor, came to watch too, although as far away as she could from the others, especially Azul. He was still exploring the many wonders of the insides of his nose.

Goldfish, now clinging to the chain link wall behind him. the audience was muttering and whispering about if this was planned or not, and why would the lion tamer just drop his chair and whip?

Red was now backing himself up to pounce, all the while Goldfish stood there wincing, what a shameful day for the professor. Red leaped up in the air and onto the fearful Goldfish, pinning him to the ground once again, just like the time they first met. The audience gasped.

"What do we do now?! I'm a 'ferocious beast' I can't exactly just get off of you and ask to start again!"

"Just follow the plan!" Goldfish ordered.

"But there is no plan to follow!"

"Then follow what, um, what I do!"

"That's not specifi-!"

Goldfish picked Red up with one hand by the scruff of his neck and set him down in the chair that he had just picked up with the other, making the chair crack a bit. The audience was silent, wondering if it, in fact, was planned, and if this man could actually pick up a lion as if it was a five pound puppy. Red kept on playing his part as a wild animal, snarling and pretending to become extremely angry that he had been defeated. Now, Goldfish, holding Red in place by the scruff of his neck reached diligently for the whip. Red clawed and growled, one of his paws just grazing Goldfish's face, causing a minor scratch, but making the audience gasp. Goldfish winced a bit at the wound, but again, it was only a minor scratch. He put one end of the whip in his mouth, one hand holding Red in place and the other wrapping the whip around the very angry looking dog. When he had managed to wrap the whip around Red a few times he tied it all up in a double knot, Red still pretending to struggle of course.

The crowd was silent, everyone in shock. This guy had just tied up a lion (well they thought that it was a lion) with his bare hands, not only that but picked it up with one hand and made the whole thing look like it was a piece of cake. Goldfish just stood there, right next to the chair that Red was in, and even he had stopped moving. Everything was silent until just one person started to applaud, the others joining in soon after. The crowd was roaring with approval by the time everyone had joined in, the "whoops" and "yeahs" included. Goldfish couldn't help but blush, and Red was happy for the slightest moment until he realized that he was still on stage and began to struggle again.

The curtain closed after a few minutes and the applauding ceased as Professor Hojo, now dressed in a bright red circus master coat went to the center of the arena to conclude the circus.

Goldfish untied Red and he jumped down from the chair. They both walked into the main tunnel which led to the arena where the others waited for them. Everyone was there (well, except for Kefka) even Terra, apparently when she heard all the ruckus she decided to come and see what was going on. Goldfish had a wide grin on his face as the others looked on him with approval. Although, he wasn't as pleased when Scarlet approached him.

"Nice muscles!" She said in her seductive voice as she laid her hand on his right bicep. He forced an awkward smile before he shook her off.

Jessie ran up to hug him, wrapping her arms around him and shouting congratulations.

"You did it! And you weren't clobbered to death either!" She shouted excitedly. Jessie eventually let go and he patted her on the head and smiled in gratitude, even though he wasn't much taller than her.

Biggs and Wedge came up to him and shook both of his hands violently.

"You may have saved the circus!" Biggs said as excitedly as he could (which sounded more like a normal person talking in a normal conversation, but hey, a congratulations is a congratulations!)

"Goldfish isn't as stupid of a name as I thought!" Wedge said as inspirationally as he possibly could.

"Uh, thank you!" Was Goldfish's only response, wondering if what Wedge had said was a compliment or not, as he was dragged into another comment on the success of his show.

"Good job!" Terra said as she shook his hand, nicer than she was before, a lot nicer than she was before!

Finally, Professor Hojo, having finished the closing speech and shooing the audience out, walked up to Goldfish, his hands behind his back and a solemn look on his face, sucking all of the cheeriness out of the room. Red got up from his belly massage (compliments of Jessie) and joined Goldfish in his spot, knowing that if Hojo was mad at Goldfish, half of it was on him.

"You didn't follow the plan."

"I know, sir, sorry sir." Goldfish said, looking to the ground. Red also looking to the ground in shame. Even the rest of the circus was looking to the ground, well, everyone except for Azul, we all know what he's doing…

"We agreed that you would do what I say, and that it would save the show." Hojo continued, his hands still behind his back.

"Yes sir."

"And you disobeyed my orders."

"I know that sir."

Hojo paused for a moment, opening his mouth slightly to take a breath. Goldfish, Red and everyone else, still looking at their shoes.

"And because of that I have no choice then to-"

"Yes."

"Keep you in the show." Hojo said, his face melting into a smile, the first one that Goldfish, or any of the other circus clowns had ever seen.

"Huh?" Goldfish asked, looking up, his face now breaking into a smile.

The professor embraced his new star pupil and threw a piece of meat to Red. The entire party of circus clowns cheered as Hojo whispered into Goldfish's ear.

"I made it easy on you this time, but be warned, disobey me again and the consequences will be much greater."

Cloud froze up a bit at hearing this, but was glad to hear what Hojo said next.

"But otherwise, I believe you've saved the show, Mr. Goldfish."

The next few months were full of fame, every show that Goldfish and Red went to, they stared in. The crowd cheered at everything they did,sometimes they would do their normal act, and sometimes they would switch it up a bit. The crowd threw roses, and sometimes even money. Professor Hojo was practically bathing in gold, the more money the better, and right now he was richer than he could've ever imagined himself to be. Goldfish and Red had now taken on the slogan, "Red and Gold, the colors of courage and victory!"

Becoming more famous by the hour, they barely had a care in the world. Goldfish felt that he belonged, and that was all he wanted or even cared about. These people were like his family, and he was happy that way.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Professor Hojo wandered throughout the streets of the slums of Midgar. A truly nasty place, but then again, that was why Hojo was there in the first place, he had something that he needed to deal with. He covered his face with a hat and wore a long cloak, even though he was trying to hide himself, it made him look even more sketchy. He was down here because he had some business with the woman who gave him the medical supplies and forbidden chemicals that he used in his many experiments. Yes, that's right, the professor is in the black market. He had made a deal with that woman, that if she gave him one of the chemicals, Xorithium, a compound made of mako energy, and was supposed to, if manufactured correctly, make one stronger and on the verge of invincible, then he would give her anything that she desired.

She had given this to him and said that if he gave her something of great value, with great power, that wasn't money, she would give him a small vile of Xorithium.

At the time Hojo had no idea what he was going to do or what to give her, but it just so happened that his next test subject would have something so powerful, that he couldn't even touch it with his bare hands, he had to pick it up with a piece of shredded clothing, and even then wrap it up till it was very tight.

When he got to her stall and saw her, without saying a word he unfolded the shredded cloth to reveal the treasure inside.

"Where did you find this?" The old hag asked, her voice sharp and full of urgency.

"On one of my test subjects." Hojo answered casually, thinking that this was just some sort of gem that increased health, or growth, and that this woman would know how to harness it, just like she did with most materias.

"Where did you find the test subject?!"

"Nibelheim."

The woman gasped as she ran to the back and grabbed a jar, she shoved the cloth with the materia in it into the jar and slammed it shut, only then to shoved it back into Hojo's hands.

"Take this back to whoever and wherever you found it!"

"Don't you want it?" Hojo asked, very surprised at this woman's sudden fear.

She started to run back to her house.

"What about the deal?"

"Forget the deal!" the woman shouted frantically. "Forget me, forget the stone, and forget that I ever knew you! Goodbye!" She said as she slammed the door, along with the window to her medicine stall.

"Cowardly old hag…" Hojo muttered as he turned around, only to be met with someone that he never wanted to encounter, let alone on today.

"Why hello, professor, I wouldn't expect to see you in this part of town, what brings you here?" A tall man in a dark suit with long black hair asked.

"Oh, uh, nothing, I just took a wrong turn somewhere." Hojo lied.

"Really? Then you wouldn't mind me looking in that jar, would you?" The man asked, still acting innocent and clueless, when really, he probably knew more than Hojo did.

"Uh, no, this is private!" The professor said, bringing the jar closer to himself protectively.

The man whipped out a pistol and pointed it straight at Hojo's head.

"If you don't show me what's inside that jar then I can take it from your corpse! Now hand it over!" The man shouted, his tone a whopping lot harsher than before.

Hojo shakily and reluctantly handed over the jar. Only for the man the immediately open the jar and look inside. He whipped out his walkie-talkie and began speaking into it.

"Reno, Rude, I've found it! Tell the President we've found form 145B and that I'll be back soon!"

"Fine!" A whiny voice echoed through the walkie-talkie.

The man reached in to grab the materia but quickly pulled his hand out as pain shot up his arm and spread throughout his entire body. He then picked up his walkie-talkie again and pressed a button.

"Reno, Rude, on second though, tell him to meet us at the circus, we have a few things to discuss with the, uh"

The man looked at Hojo with a glare, the professor answering it with one right back at him. "Circus master."

The professor gulped, his hands still up in the air. The man put his walkie-talkie away, the jar still in his hands.

"Where did you find this?"

"On a test subject!" Hojo answered casually, as if everyone knows that he found it on a test subject.

"Which test subject?"

"I can't tell you that!"

The man slapped him hard across the face and asked again.

"_Which _test subject?"

Hojo spat on the ground, touching his bruised cheek, a bit of blood running down his chin.

"My star pupil, you can't touch him!"

"Oh, we'll see about that!" The man said, dragging Hojo into a shiny black car and slamming the door behind him.

Whoever these people were, they meant business!

_Well, that concludes yet another chapter of Mr. Goldfish Strife! I hope that you've liked it so far, I've been having a lot of fun writing it! I've had a really busy week, so, apologies that this one is out later then all of the others, although it is the longest of them all!_

_Please comment, and I'll see you guys next week!_

_-Dragonbytes :)_


	6. Trust No One

_Greetings dearest readers! My arms are dead because I tried to wake board, it was really fun...until I face planted! I'd do it again though! I had fun introducing Rufus (well, kind of) and The Turks in the last chapter, whenever anyone adds them into a story it's always fun :) _

_Anyway, enough of that! Let's get back to what Mr. Goldfish is up to, shall we?_

_Happy reading!_

**Chapter 6:**

Another day, another show, another roaring crowd, months and months had gone by since the big show. The show that had made Hojo and his entire circus famous, not even to mention all the gill that came with that fame. Goldfish was happy he had everything he needed, friends, money, all of the girls swooning over him, there was just one problem; he was bored. Goldfish was bored with his job, the same thing over and over again, traveling all over the place, Wutai to Rocket Town, you name it! The crowd loved it, and that was all that mattered, right?

Goldfish was bored, but he didn't understand why. He figured that he wanted more to happen with his life, like he was meant for more. You might think that lion taming would be an exciting job, and that you wouldn't get tired of it after just a few months. It would be if the lion was real, but this lion's "special". For Goldfish it was like horse play with your best friend, just in front of thousands of people.

Today, the team was heading from Wutai back to Midgar for the last show of their tour. The professor never could've imagined that his circus business would come to this, although, to much of Goldfish's and the others surprise, Hojo couldn't make it on the tour. He was supposed to be back after an hour, but when he didn't get back till, well, he never got back, the team decided to go on tour without him. The bus was leaving and the bus driver was already tired of them trying to buy time.

They were just getting back and hoping to see him, but worried about how angry he would get when he found out about their "leaving without him." The bus was driving away and they were all getting off when they discovered a shiny black car parked in front of the circus tent. They were curious on whose it was, but then just assumed that the professor had used some of the leftover money from paying off the circus debts and bought himself something luxurious.

"Hello?" Jessie asked as she cracked open the door to the main building, he brown, leather suitcase just a few inches behind her, and her pillow and blanket under her arm, apparently anxious to be back home.

She turned back to Goldfish and the rest of the group with a puzzled look on her face.

"What, is he not here?"

The entire group quietly stepped in, Azul of course, being the loudest, with his big burly feet stomping onto the linoleum floor with a thud.

"Shhh!" Biggs shushed to the big blue creature. Which he answered with his usual, monotone,

"Ok."

They heard voices from down the hallway and crept through the hallways, knowing that something was wrong.

"What's going on?" Jessie mouthed to Goldfish as they crept through the halls in the direction of the crashes and yelling. Azul was just walking normally, making large thuds with every step he took, and occasionally picking his nose. Scarlet, meanwhile went to her room, wanting to bathe properly and redo her nails, not caring about what happened to the others.

The group, Azul, Biggs Wedge, Jessie, Terra, Red, and Goldfish, reached the window that looked into Hojo's lab, the curtain being closed whenever he was conducting an experiment, and it just so happened that it was closed now. There was lots of yelling from inside the room, they recognized Hojo's voice, but there were others, voices that they hadn't heard before. They didn't sound very friendly either, shouting as if they were desperate for something and they needed it as soon as possible. It sounded like they were breaking all of the professors lab equipment, every crash and bang making everyone cringe.

They were so focused on what was going on in the room, their ears pressed against the wall so tight that each one was like a suction cup, that they failed to notice that they weren't the only ones in the hallway.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"You'll never find them! They left to go on tour months ago! Really, you think that interrogating me further is going to make a difference?"

Hojo was bound to his own test subject experiment table and was covered in bruises, blood and dirt from being dragged throughout the hallways. There was wired tied around his head and a few needles sticking out of his arms, everything connected to a strange contraption in the corner of the room.

Apparently Rufus and the Turks had been at this for weeks, torturing all of the information they could out of the professor, although for secret agents, they weren't doing too well at it.

Tseng growled and then looked to his boss, the head of the Turks, Rufus Shinra. Rufus was the President of the energy company at the center of Midgar, it being years since his father died of geostigma, a deadly disease that had ran in the Shinra family for generations.

"Professor, we ask but a very small favor from you. You see, I need the black materia, for some, uh, business of mine." Rufus said, his forehead, eyes and entire body cloaked in some sort of white cloak.

"We all know you have it, there's no point in trying to hide that you're diseased Mr. President." Hojo said in his usual snarky way of speaking to people.

The President looked over to Tseng and gestured with his hand, the white cloak covering up the sinister look in his eyes. Tseng, having understood the order, simply walked over to a lever almost directly in front of him, paused for a moment and wrapped his hands firmly around the handle. He pulled it back roughly, sending currents of electric shock surging through Professor Hojo's body.

The professor writhed and trembled on the table, the electricity making his bones shake, and to him it felt like his brain was turning into oatmeal. His entire body was wracked with pain even after Tseng turned off the contraption, and he still twisted for a few minutes after the experience. This wasn't the first time that it had happened though, he had gone through weeks of this, but he never said a word.

Well, that was what the crew heard, taking the little fragments of speech and noises that they had picked up through the thick, cement wall, and turning them into a dramatic scene.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The group of circus clowns heard shallow breathing behind them, and Terra slowly turned her head to see what was behind her.  
"Kefka…" She said in a disappointed tone.

Everyone turned to where Terra was looking. Kefka was still wearing his straightjacket, the white straps dragging on the floor behind him, his left eye was twitching, and his lips mouthing the two words that he had repeated over and over again for years.

"How did he get out!?" Jessie finally asked after a few moments had passed.

"That's what I was thinking." Red added.

"At least he's not-!" Terra said happily, but was cut off mid sentence.

"...world domination..."

"Why you!" Terra sprung at him, but was caught by Biggs who then added.

"Spoke too soon."

"World domination." Kefka said, a bit louder than the other times.

"Hey, be quiet, will ya?" Wedge ordered anxiously, these halls were prone to making echoes, and they didn't know who else could be lurking about.

"World domination!"

"Shut up!" Red barked.

"WORLD DOMINATION!" Kefka shouted out of fear of this angry, red creature as he tried to run away, but was caught by Goldfish who covered his mouth.

"Red!" He whined.

"What? If someone wasn't going to tell him then I was!"

Alarmed voices could be heard from down the hall.

"Well, now you've done it!" Biggs said in an irritated tone.

"It wasn't my fault that he alerted anyone else who's here!" Red growled.

"Quit you bickering! Goldfish has already left!" Terra shouted, breaking the two up.

The group looked around for Goldfish, to see that he had ran down the hall, Kefka being carried under his arm, having no resistance whatsoever.

They scampered after him, the voices seeming to get closer. Azul, of course, was walking at his usual slow pace, but was dragged forward by a very anxious Terra.

"Come on, Azul!"

Just as they had rounded the corner the two turks that were pursuing them, Reno and Rude, had rounded the corner at the other end of the hallway.

"Hm, I could've sworn I heard something down here." Reno said in a more quiet version of his usually whiny speech. His hair was an alarming shade of cherry red, and was almost as spiky as Goldfish's. He was wearing a suit, although it was partially undone, unlike Tseng and Rude's, theirs are always buttoned up all the way to the top.

"Humph." Rude added. He usually didn't say much, just "humph" mostly, but is a good contrast to Reno's talkative disposition.

"You heard someone shouting down here, right Rude?"

"Humph."

Meanwhile, Goldfish, Red, Jessie, Biggs, Wedge, Azul, Kefka, and Terra were scrunched up against the wall at the other end of the hallway, unable to run any further due to a dead end at the end of the hallway that they were in.

"Ok, what do we do now? We obviously can't escape that way!" Jessie shouted, pointing down the hallway to the dead end, but still whispering since she didn't want to alert the turks any further about the whereabouts of their current location. She was a bit frustrated, for she had been long awaiting her soft, cozy, bed, and now they were on a rescue mission!

"I don't know!" Red hissed. "Mr. AWOL, you got any ideas?" He asked, referring to Goldfish. Although Goldfish hadn't actually gone AWOL, Red was just trying to over exaggerate it.

"First of all: What does AWOL mean?" Goldfish asked. Red sighed.

"Second of all: I don't always have a plan! And third of all: we should be worrying about how to get into that lab, not about escaping!"

"Why would we want to get into the lab?!" Jessie demanded.

"You care about him don't you? He's like a part of your family! Don't you care even the tiniest bit about him?" Goldfish asked, a bit surprised at Jessies unloyalty. "He's practically raised you and you're just going to leave him in there to be tortured?!"

"You know, this isn't the first time this has happened to him." Wedge whispered.

Reno and Rude began to walk towards the corner where the group was situated.

"How did he get out of the other ones?" Goldfish asked.

Everyone shook their heads.

"We don't know." Terra replied.

Reno and Rude kept on walking down the long hallway, Reno carrying on in a conversation about how underrated he is.

"Well, then how do you expect that he'll get out of this one?"

"I guess he'll just do it." Biggs answered.

Reno and Rude walked closer.

"And how-?"

"Okay, okay, we get it! We've got to help him somehow or you'll be guilt tripping us for the next year!" Red interrupted. Goldfish smiled.

"So what do we do then?" Jessie asked, still a bit irritated, knowing that if the fates had willed it, she could be sleeping right now.

Reno and Rude came closer, and now Goldfish could hear their footsteps and their conversation about how the pay should be higher, making him nervous.

"Uhh, umm."

"Just spit it out!" Wedge ordered, just as nervous as Goldfish.

"Hehe, watch this." Reno chuckled as he cocked the trigger of his gun. Rude simply stood in his usual position, arms crossed.

Without thinking Goldfish grabbed Kefka and shoved him out in front of Reno and Rude.

Kefka kept on staring forward, one of his eyes twitching and a bit of foam dripping out of his mouth.

"Huh?" Rude asked, his arms unfolding.

Reno knelt down.

"Why hello there little-"

Kefka looked Reno in the eye, breathing out of his mouth, and sniffing, his left eye twitching, but his right glued onto Reno's face. Kefka knew that he was the size of a child, but he didn't like to hear about it.

"I think something's wrong with him." Reno chuckled back to his work partner. He then turned back to Kefka.

"Are you mentally in-?" Reno started in a baby voice, but was interrupted by the little clowns shrieks.

"WORLD DOMINATION!" Kefka shrieked as he leapt onto his easy prey.

Reno yelled in pain as he tried desperately to peel the strange creature from his body. Kefka was pulling at Reno's cherry Red hair, yanking a few bits out and throwing them to the ground as if he was a wild beast (that subject is still up for debate). When Rude tried to help kefka simply leapt onto him and tried to pull at his hair, there was only one problem, he didn't have any. Figuring this out fairly quickly, Kefka resorted to pulling off the next closest thing, his glasses! Kefka and Rude fought over the shades, rude trying desperately to get them back.

"Hey! Give those back you-!" Kefka managed to grab them, he then threw them to the ground and crushed them, adding an evil cackle to the scene.

"My glasses!" Rude shrieked, ashamed that his eyes had been revealed to the outside world that didn't include his apartment.

Reno tried to help his comrade but was only leapt onto again, but didn't receive any help since Rude was too busy trying to find a new pair of shades.

Kefka scratched at Reno's face, and when he managed to to get up, Kefka handled it by simply giving him a nice kick to the groin, causing him to wheel over in pain.

Rude snuck up behind Kefka and grabbed him.

"Gotcha!" He said triumphantly, but he celebrated all too soon, for the next thing that came into contact with his skull was a chair.

"Well done!" Goldfish congratulated as Jessie knocked out Reno with another chair.

Kefka just stood in the middle of the floor as if this fight had never happened, his left eye still twitching.

Without hesitation he picked up Kefka, again he had no resistance, and began down the hallway.

"Well, I guess that confirms that we can just bust in." Jessie said, very surprised that the insane clown could kick so much butt.

"Alright," Red mumbled "I guess that means we're off to kill ourselves…"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Bobby pin." Biggs ordered as he held his open palm out to Terra, whom, receiving the order pulled one out of her hair and placed it into his palm. He pushed it into the lock hole.

"Me Azul."

"We know!" Terra whispered, although it was sharp.

The lock clicked.

"Got it!"

Biggs slowly opened the door.

"Ah, Reno, Rude, any success on-? Huh?"

"...world domination…" Kefka mumbled.

Terra hit the lights and everything went black, the entire room full of darkness, no light anywhere, not even a tiny sliver of it.

_Crash_

_Bang_

_Thud_

"Gaaaahhhh!"

_Splat_

_Whoosh_

"Stop that! This is the-!"

_Crunch_

"Professor? Is that you?"

"Get off me filth!"

"Apparently not!"

_Splash_

_Crash_

_Crunch_

"Yowch! I'm on your side!"

"Sorry…"

_Flick_

The lights switched back on, Hojo was hanging from the ceiling by someones leather belt. Tseng's pants were on the floor, some chemical in the far left corner were burning a hole in the wall, Azul had something on his head, although no one knew what it was, Kefka had something in his mouth that looked like hair, President Shinra was tied to the electric chair, and Jessie had a flask in her hand, right about to smash it onto the pantless Tseng's head. Terra was sitting on top of Goldfish's shoulders trying to untie Hojo from the ceiling, her tongue sticking out of her mouth as she focused, and Biggs and Wedge were fighting each other, although in the dark they didn't know it. Everything was frozen.

"Someone turn the lights off!" Jessie shouted after a few moments.

"No! I can't see in the dark!" Terra objected, but it was all too late, as Azul leaned up against the lightswitch once again.

_Flick_

_Grunt_

_Thud_

_Growl_

_Gasp_

_Crash_

_Pluck_

"Owch!"

_Kefka laughing_

_Flick_

The lights turned on.

"I said, turn them off, Azul!"

"Ok."

_Flick_

_Gurgle_

_Cough_

_Crash_

_Bark_

_Splat_

_Slip_

_Whoosh_

_Zip_

_Slice_

_Thud_

"Everyone stop!" Hojo yelled above the noise. Everything froze. "Azul, turn the lights on."

_Flick_

"No one move!" Hojo ordered, and everyone froze. Well, everyone except for Tseng, who was too busy trying to put his pants back on.

"You idiots just beat up the President!" Hojo shouted at his circus crew. "Can you even comprehend how bad this is for business?!" He whacked Goldfish on the head, he winced from the blow.

Kefka laughed maniacally as he swallowed something he shouldn't have even placed into his mouth.

"And how did he get out?!"

Hojo's hair was a mess, and so was his entire body, cuts and bruises everywhere, not even to mention his lab coat. Take that thing to the dry cleaners and they would give you a million dollars just so they wouldn't have to clean it. But the surprising thing was, that this was all from the fight.

"I-I'm sorry." Goldfish apologized, looking at his shoes.

"You better be!"

"We were just trying to help." Jessie protested, but just as ashamed. Red and the others (not including Azul and Kefka) were all feeling the same shame.

"You're under arrest!" Tseng shouted as he clasped handcuffs onto Goldfish's wrists.

"I was organizing something." The professor explained.

"But we thought-." Jessie began.

"Hey! Get off me!" Goldfish shouted, struggling through his bonds.

"I know what you were probably thinking, but that just wasn't the case."

"Wait, what were you organizing?" Jessie asked as Goldfish was being dragged out.

Red ran up to Tseng and dug his teeth into his calf. Tseng responded to this by digging the end of his shoe into Red's side, sending him flying across the room.

"Red!" Goldfish yelled, struggling against his bonds, only for Tseng to press a button on the cuffs sending electric shock up his arms, making him crumple to the ground, all of his super strength seeming to have left him. Meanwhile, Red whimpered, still lying on his side in the corner.

"Wait, why aren't they arresting any of us? We all took part in the fight too!" Biggs asked furiously, at the same time sounding very confused.

"Well, that's the thing, you see,"

Terra, Wedge, and Jessie ran after him, only to be stopped by two very unhappy looking turks, one with red hair, and the other with none at all.

"I made a deal."

"But he's the star of the show!" Biggs protested.

"With what they gave me, we won't have to have a show anymore!"

Outside of the building, Goldfish was shoved into the back of the shiny black car.

"What would they need him for?!" Terra demanded.

"It's none of your concern! Why are you worrying so much! He wasn't your friend, you barely knew him!"

Tseng shoved the car keys into the ignition.

"But he trusted you!"  
"'Trust no one', That is my motto!" The professor said, walking out into the hallway, the rest of his circus clowns following him out.

The car drove away, Goldfish staring out of the window mournfully, wondering what he did wrong.

"How much did they give you?!" Wedge insisted.

"Eh...enough."

"You gave Goldy up for, 'enough'?" Jessie demanded. "What kind of sick creep are you?"

"Watch your mouth, Missy! Or I'll have to fire you!" Hojo tee-heed, pleased with the amount of money that was in the briefcase that he had been given.

The entire team stood still in the hallway, in shock that someone that they had all looked up to, could do something so awful.

"Oh wait!" He laughed. "You're already fired! I won't be needing you all anymore! I'll expect for all of you to be gone by tomorrow morning!"

They still stood in the same position as they watched him round the corner of the hallway, giggling the entire time.

"I can't believe it…" Jessie mumbled, staring out into nothing. "He sold Goldfish."

_PLOT TWIST!_

_So how did you like that one? Even though I know that it's not _that _surprising, Hojo is bitter all the way to the core, always!_

_I really enjoyed writing this, betrayals are always fun to come up with!_

_What will happen to Goldfish next? Will he be able to escape? Or will he meet his doom?_

_Stay tuned to find out! _

_Please comment, and all of you have a wonderful evening!_

_-Dragonbytes :)_


	7. A Sleight of Hand

_Hey guys! Dragonbytes here, with a brand new chapter of Mr. Goldfish Strife!_

_Professor Hojo is one of my most hated characters in the entire series! So, I had to make him do something awful. Even though in the actual story he isn't really the main cause of anything, he's just somehow related to the root cause of nearly everything bad, there's just something about him that just really ticks me off!_

_I hope that he is now that character that you "love to hate" and that he will tick you off as much as he ticks me off._

_I hope that you all had an eventful school week and got good grades :) And if you no longer go to school then I hope that you had a wonderful work week!_

_Now, without further delay, let's see how our fishy friend is doing!_

_Happy reading!_

**Chapter 7:**

_Bounce...bounce…_

Goldfish, now clad in all orange, was sitting in his cell, bouncing a small rubber ball.

_Bounce...bounce…_

He was thinking about what he did wrong, why the person that he looked up to had sent him to prison, and, most of all, what were they going to do to him, and what did these strange people need him for?

Around his ankles were two cuffs that matched the ones on his wrists, although they were extremely uncomfortable, plus, they were connected to a system which made it so if Goldfish so much as lay a finger on the metal bars surrounding his cell, he would be electrocuted. Well, you know what they say, fashion before comfort!

_Bounce...bounce…_

Goldfish's hand slipped.

_Bounce...bounce...bouncing out of the cell…_

"No!" Goldfish yelled as his only source of entertainment bounced out of his cell.

He dropped to the ground and grappled for it, only for it to bounce away and out into the wet, smelly hallway which smelled of stinky feet and farts. He was on all fours, knowing that if he touched the bars he would be electrocuted, so he didn't dare touch go near them.

Goldfish's eyes were focused intently on his bouncy ball until two boots appeared right in front of his face, two huge black ones. Goldfish slowly looked up the man's body, he was clothed in military uniform and was looking down at him with a stern look on his face.

Goldfish quickly pushed himself up and saluted the guard, even though he was a prisoner and he really didn't need to, you could tell that he was trying to get on all of the guard's good sides.

The guard unlocked the door to the cell and clicked some cuffs onto Goldfish's wrists behind his back.

The guard was a large black man with a scar across his right cheek, he had short black hair, a square jaw, and he almost never smiled.

"Hey, um, Officer Barret?" Goldfish began.

"It's Officer Wallace!" The man barked.

"I'm sorry, ehem, Officer Wallace." Goldfish corrected himself.

"What'd you want?" He asked in his gruff voice.

"Uhh," Goldfish coughed. "Would you mind, um?" He coughed and tilted his head in the direction of his bouncy ball.

Officer Wallace seemed to have gotten the message and just pushed him along, down the smelly prison hallway.

Down a few hallways, and after rounding many corners, Officer Wallace and Goldfish reached a staircase. Goldfish stopped.

"Wait, where are we going? I thought that you were just transferring me to a different cell!"

"You'll see." Officer Wallace said as he pushed Goldfish up the stairs.

The farther they got up the stairs, the nicer it smelled, and the nicer everything looked. When they finished walking up the steps they reached a hallway with a plush red carpet leading all the way down. Paintings hanging on the walls, flower vases, candles that weren't lit, and mirrors were everywhere, almost as if Goldfish was being led by a bellman to his hotel room.

At the end of the hallway was a large double door, Officer Wallace pushed it open and led Goldfish inside. He looked around for a moment, observing the red curtains, making the entire room dark. In the corner was a grand piano and to the looks of it, no one ever played it.

Barret unlocked Goldfish's handcuffs and left the room, closing the door behind him, the tiny sliver of light that was peeping through cloaked by the darkness of the room. Goldfish rubbed his wrists, happy that he was now free to move his hands freely again, he kept searching the room with his eyes.

On the wall was a huge painting of the Greek gods, each one sitting on a throne, looking powerful enough in that respect, but they weren't looking down on anything like they were in most paintings. Instead, in this one, they were looking up to something, although Goldfish didn't really know what it was.

"Beautiful isn't it?" A voice asked from behind Goldfish. He quickly turned around to see who it was, although, he wasn't happy when he found saw his face, or at least the parts of his face that he could see. Rufus Shinra, the president of Shinra Inc. The worldwide known electric power company.

"It's confusing." Goldfish replied, seemingly unfazed that he was standing in the presence of the man whom he had been sold to.

"Really?" Rufus asked inquisitively. "How so?" He rested his chin on his fist, waiting for Goldfish to answer.

"They're supposed to be gods," Goldfish began.

"Yes."

"But, they're looking up to something, instead of looking down on us like they are in most paintings."

"So you could be implying that there is a power greater than that of the gods?" Rufus asked.

"Well,-"

"Funny you would ask that, because it just so happens that there _is_ something like that." Rufus interrupted, continuing on with his speech as though he had it planned all along. "And you happen to have it!"

"Me?"

"Yes, you. What? You didn't know you had it?"

"No-"

"Well, you don't have it with you, you are just the _owner. _And that is why you are here."

"What is it, then?" Goldfish asked.

"This." Rufus answered, holding up a black orb. Goldfish had never seen it before, yet he felt like he had. Perhaps in a dream it had popped up somewhere.

"I've never seen that before.-"

"Don't lie to me, I could see it in your eyes!" Rufus barked.

Goldfish took a step back as two figures stepped out of the shadows and into a spot where Goldfish could see them better. Reno and Rude, he could tell by the shades, Rude wearing them even in a room as dark as this, and Reno with that unmistakable cherry red spikes.

"What do you want from me?"

"Haven't you already guessed that? You're the owner of the materia! Of all people you would know what it does and what you're here for!"

"But I don't! That's the thing, I really haven't seen that before!"

Rufus held out his hand, what was in it was spherical and dark like Rudes sunglasses, although Goldfish couldn't quite make out what it was.

Reno and Rude dragged him forward, so that he was right in front of the Presidents wheelchair. As he came closer he saw that what was in the presidents hand was a black orb, apparently "materia" as the President called it. But, it wasn't touching Rufus's skin, it was in a box, the outside and inside lined with satin, prohibiting the touch of the orb.

Goldfish still had no idea what this strange object was, he thought that he had never seen it before. But, apparently he owned it, and whatever powers it possessed he could harness.

Goldfish was shoved abruptly in front of the chair, he looked back at Reno and Rude, always the same face, stern and unchanging, although Reno sometimes smirked.

"You can touch it if you like. I would actually like for you to touch it, so whatever you do, you're going to end up touching it anyway. You're like, " Rufus thought for a moment. "A test guinea pig!"

Well, that was encouraging.

Goldfish gulped, and with a shaking hand reached out to touch the vibrating orb, Rufus smiled slyly while he did this. he lay one finger on it and flinched, but nothing happened. Other than a volt of electricity running up his arm, almost unearthly, but one thing was for certain, it didn't feel nice.

"Why can't you touch that?!" Rufus demanded, stiffening up a bit, his hooded eyebrows furrowing slightly.

"I already told you," Goldfish said as he backed away from the chair and into the firm grasp of Reno and Rude, massaging his hand all the while. "I don't know what that is, or how to use it!"

"But he found it on you!"

"What did he find on me?!" Goldfish demanded.

"The black materia! You're supposed to know how to use it!" Rufus rolled his wheelchair forward

"But I don't! Just because he found it on me doesn't mean I know exactly what it is!"

"Yes it does!"

Reno and Rude firmly held onto Goldfish's arms, clasping the electric cuffs onto Goldfish's wrists, somehow shutting off his super strength, just like they always did.

"Who did you get it from then?" Rufus asked, regaining his "cool".

"I don't know!"

Rufus stared deeply into Goldfish's pleading eyes.

"I believe you."

Goldfish let out a long sigh of relief.

"But since we won't have any use for you anymore." Goldfish stiffened slightly. "There won't be any harm in getting rid of you."

"Wait, what?!" Goldfish struggled against the cuffs, only for electricity to be sent up his arms.

Reno brought out a knife while Goldfish continued to struggle, now not minding the electric shock, although it still kept him from breaking free. Veins were popping out of his arms, and his eyes widened in fear.

The knife was brought up to his neck and as he struggled a drop of blood welled up on the skin of his neck.

"We'll get Tseng to clean up the body." Rufus smirked.

Goldfish grunted and continued to struggle.

"Goodbye Mr. Strife."

_Crash!_

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Denzel! I thought I told you not to play ball near the president's mansion!" A man with spiky raven black hair scolded at his young friend as he ran towards him.

"I'm sorry, I forgot about that part." The red haired boy said, genuinely sorry about his blunder.

The raven haired man stared up at the broken window and growled, but froze as he spotted a familiar face, it was President Shinra glaring down at him.

"Shi-" He looked back at the hopefully clueless ten year old behind him. "Ehem, I mean, shoot!"

"Don't worry, I know what you were about to say." The little boy assured him.

"Gee, that makes me feel so much better about my parenting skills." The raven haired man said sarcastically.

Around the mansion was a tall chain link fence with barbed wire on the top, the actual structure was made out of sturdy cement bricks with a thick layer of steel under the main wall, making it rare for you to be able to break in, unless you hit a window...

Seconds after the raven haired man spotted the president glaring at him through the third story window, guards came piling out of the front gate, armed and ready to capture someone. The man began to sweat, but soon regained his senses and turned to face his adopted son.

"Denzel, take this," The man handed him the baseball bat that he had roughly taken away from him when he first got here. "And run as fast as you can until you reach home, and if anyone tries to attack you give them a nice whack with that, ok?"

"Cool!" Denzel said in an excited tone, a stereotypical ten year old boy's reaction. But as the soldiers came closer he began to change his mind.

"Wait, are you gonna fight?"

"Uh, maybe!"

"Cool! Can I help?"

The man turned around to face Denzel and kneeled down to his level.

"Denzel, you have to get out of here, ok? And whatever happens, keep running, and occasionally whack someone." The boy grinned. "But most of all keep running until you reach home, I can handle this."

"But, why?"

"Run!"

After a few moments the boy reluctantly ran away.

"Bye, Zack!" He shouted as he ran.

"Take care of yourself!" He shouted back, removing his huge sword from his back, and readied himself for an attack.

The first man that came at him was a scrawny soldier, and Zack would feel bad if he killed him, so he just hit him in the head with the blunt side of his sword, the soldier then crumpling to the ground like a popped balloon. The rest seeing that their victim was merciful, ran at him with full speed. Zack, knowing that all of these people were paid to do this, was easy on them, the most he ever did to them was knock them out for a couple hours and give them a scratch. Although his compassion got the better of him, as in, he got his sword confiscated by a guy that he was actually trying to stab, and then after that everything went downhill...

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Wait where are you taking me?" Goldfish asked as he was roughly shoved down the hallway by Barret, Rufus, Reno and Rude in front of him, walking at a fast pace. Barret was half carrying Goldfish, although Goldfish was nearly a third larger than what he used to look like, he was small compared to him.

"It just so happens that there _is _a use for you." Rufus answered.

"And what would that be?"

"You'll see." Rufus chuckled in reply.

"I hate it when people say that…" Goldfish mumbled.

"What was that?"

"I didn't say anything!" Reno answered, sounding annoyed.

"Well, next time, keep your mouth shut." Rufus scolded, still facing forward, walking at a steady, fast pace down the hallway.

Reno looked back to Goldfish with a sour look on his face, Goldfish, still practically being carried down the hall by Barret, responded simply by smiling innocently and shrugging his shoulders, but only managing to make Reno hate him even more.

At the end of the hall the entered the same stairwell that Goldfish had came from, leading into the dungeon. Goldfish was relieved that they were just going to put him back into his cell, he had already figured out a plan to escape, including a bouncy ball of course, although, something told him that that was the last place that Rufus was planning on taking him. And he was right.

In front of him, he could see that he was being led to a room with a heavy metal door, and no window, two guards standing at the door. Goldfish couldn't see inside of the room, but he knew what it was. He couldn't get to sleep last night because of the sounds that came out of the room, screams of anguish echoing through the hallways, the sharp snap of a whip. Wait a minute, he was going here? Why would they beat him instead of just killing him? He would probably die anyway! That was what they were going to do in the first place, wasn't it?

As President Rufus approached the thick metal door the two guards saluted him, and when he got there, they respectfully opened it for him, still standing straight up, legs together, and faces covered with a strange helmet with three red dots on the top.

Goldfish flinched as the heavy metal door slammed behind him, Barret set him down and gave him a little nudge forward. In the center of the room was a tall concrete beam, stretching from the floor to the ceiling, wrapped around it was a chain with shackles on the end. To Goldfish's surprise, the cuffs were already filled with someones wrists. The man was on his knees, no shirt, and his head between his two arms which were tied above his head by the chain, and although Goldfish couldn't quite see the man's head or face, he could make out a mane of spiky black hair just touching his shoulders. He was breathing heavily, the rise and fall of his chest very heavy, obviously very scared. Goldfish knew full well of what was going on and what was about to happen...but, the question still lingered in his mind, why was he here?

A whip was shoved roughly into Goldfish's palm and he looked to Rufus in shock, Reno having shoved the whip into his hand retreating to his spot by his boss's chair.

"Wait, no, I-!" Goldfish choked. "Y-you can't! What do you expect me to do?! I can't-!"

"You were a lion tamer, right?" He asked casually.

"I didn't beat humans, I'd never beat a human, if that's what you're referring to!"

"Our other executioner was murdered by an escaped prisoner just a few days ago, we haven't really bothered to replace him, we've only gotten other prisoners to do the job until you came along. You must be an expert with the whip!"

Goldfish couldn't even beat an animal, let alone a human being! When he first met Red, the furry creature tried to kill him, but he didn't dare lay a hand on him. Accept for that one time, but that was an accident! Goldfish was now sweating as he looked back to President Rufus with wide eyes.

"I'm going to offer you a deal, Mr. Strife." Rufus began."If you can beat this man to death,"

The man with the raven hair let out a fearful grunt.

"Then I will give you a job."

Goldfish's face was turning red, and his teeth were gritted, listening angrily to the words that were coming out of Rufus's mouth.

"But if you fail to do what I order you to do now, then you will die the same way as this unfortunate soul will."

Goldfish looked to the man, and then back to Rufus, his eyes softening with hopelessness, but still full of rage. Was this guy just dead set on torturing him?!

"Your life or his life, easy question if you ask me." Rufus finished, a little chuckle being added to the end of his line.

Goldfish slowly turned his head to the person that he was ordered to murder, but then quickly turned his head back to Rufus when he spoke.

"Well, go ahead, it's now or never, think about your options!"

Goldfish looked at his shoes, those stupid black boots that Hojo had given him, the only thing that he was allowed to keep with him after his other garments were taken away and put in a box somewhere. His will of survival and moral compass were completely opposite in this situation, he didn't know what to do, yes, he knew what the logical thing to do would be, but that didn't mean that it was the right thing to do. Become a slave to the person that in just a few hours of being with him he had grown to despise, or die. Which one was worse? Was this really about him? He had a man's life in his hands! He would put that into consideration too!

Goldfish's feet slowly moved towards the beam, and the man connected to it. He was shaking, he and the man both were shaking. Goldfish stopped right in front of it, and he could almost feel Rufus smirking. Goldfish's knuckles were turning white he was gripping the end of the whip so tightly. With his eyes locked onto the man's back he slowly rose the end of the whip into the air, ready to strike. Rufus was now grinning, all of his teeth showing through his lips. Goldfish was right about to strike, thrusting the whip forwards slightly, but then stopping it abruptly, looking at the man, he just couldn't do it. This man was just like Goldfish, a victim, they were both faced with death, and both innocent. He tried again, thrusting the whip forward, but stopping it abruptly. Rufus's grin faded into a defeated looking frown. The raven haired man was now breathing a bit slower, surprised, but still fearful for his life.

After a few more tries Goldfish finally brought the whip down.

"I'm sorry, but I just can't do it!"

The man chained to the pole lightened up a bit, a spark of hope now implanted into his heart. So there were people out there who weren't selfish a-holes.

"You choose death then." Rufus said disappointedly.

"Yes."

"You know, you had so much potential-"

"Well, yes, at least if I wasn't defenseless."

Rufus stiffened up a bit, and the turks began to run to tackle Goldfish, but froze in their tracks. Not because they wanted to, but because they were forced to.

Goldfish, when talking with Rufus in his office, had a trick up his sleeve, a trick that came in the form of a bouncy ball. When he reached in to touch the materia he slipped the bouncy ball into the place of it, the bouncy ball was black and even slightly shiny, so it looked almost like an exact replica. Rufus's face was cloaked so his vision wasn't exactly twenty-twenty, taking this to his advantage Goldfish slipped the bouncy ball in the place of the black materia, he was just waiting for the perfect time to use it.

He whipped it out, not knowing how to use it, but knowing that it did something just touched it and everything around him froze. Goldfish ran to the aid of the man with the raven hair, broke the chain apart with his bare hands and helped him up.

"Come on, we've got to hurry!" Goldfish ordered, lifting the man's arm onto his shoulder as he spoke.

"Wait, why did you?"

"You can save the talking for later, I don't know how long this will last!" Goldfish interrupted.

"Wait, what is that thing anyway?" The man with the raven hair asked. Goldfish now looking into his face and seeing that he had blue eyes, a rare combination with his black hair.

"Um, I don't really know."

"You don't know?!"

"Well, seeing that I just got it and found out how to use it, I don't really know what it's capable of."

Through his black eye and bruised cheek the man looked at him with concern.

"Ok, let's go!"

"Hey, what's your name." The man sniffed as a few drops of blood dripping out of his nose and spattering onto the ground.

"Goldfish Strife."

"Goldfish?!"

"I know, it's not the best. Yours?"

"Zuck!" He snorted.

"Zuck?"

"I mean; Zack! Zack Fair, thanks for saving my life."

"No problem." Goldfish answered.

They were approaching the stairwell that led to the way out, when Zack shouted,

"Wait! We need to get my sword!"

"Your sword? Why that? I know it's expensive and all, but-"

"It's important to me! We have to go back and get it!" Zack interrupted, still sounding like an older version of Donald Duck, but very concerned Donald Duck.

"Ok, do you know where it is?" Goldfish asked, wondering if it wasn't such a bad idea to go back and get their belongings, walking around wearing bright orange wasn't usually the best way to avoid attention.

They made (or more like limped, for Zack) their way down another hallway, with another series of doors, each one with a little gold plaque reading what the contents of the room was.

_Confiscated drugs… _Goldfish read silently in his mind.

_Evidence…_

_Murder weapons…_

_Confiscated items…_

_Investigation cosmetics…_

Wait! Confiscated items?

"We just missed it, take a few steps back!" Goldfish ordered.

They took a few steps back, just going past the, _Investigation Cosmetics _door, and were right about to reach the _Confiscated Items _door when they ran into something. It felt like a wall, but Goldfish didn't remember seeing any walls on their way down, besides the ones that were on the sides. And this wall was slightly warm, and he felt breath breaching the spikes of his blonde hair, huh? Wait this wasn't a wall, this was-!

"And you really though' you two coul' escape, didn't ya?"

_And so concludes another chapter of Mr. Goldfish Strife._

_I hope that you enjoyed it, and if you please then post your thoughts in the comment section :)_

_Zack Fair is my all time favorite Final Fantasy character so I had so much fun introducing him! Yes, I confess of making Rufus bad, I know that he's cool, but the cooler he is the badder I can make him! (Bwahahahahahahahahaha!)_

_I hope that you guys enjoy your weekends and have a lovely school week ahead._

_I'll see you guys with a new chapter next week!_

_Bye!_

_-Dragonbytes_


	8. Escape!

_Hello, dearest readers!_

_I hope that you all had a good week :) _

_I actually have been sick this week, so this might be published a bit later than scheduled, at least you'll know why. It's just this nasty respiratory thing that's been spreading around, so tea and soup for me! (All week…)_

_Boy, that last chapter was angsty! Sheesh! I hope that you enjoyed reading it though :)_

_Please enjoy this next chapter and have a wonderful evening!_

_Happy reading!_

**Chapter 8:**

_Knock, knock, knock!_

Was all that could be heard throughout the Strife Household besides the uncontrollable sobs of Mrs. Strife.

_Knock, knock, knock, knock!_

"I'm coming!" She shouted in the direction of the door, giving her nose one last blow into her last Kleenex in her last tissue box. "You don't have to be so rude…" She mumbled as she got up and pushed the kitchen chair in. Stuffing a folded up picture into her pocket, the one that she had been crying over for hours. In the picture there was a scrawny looking boy with a mess of spiky blonde hair piled onto his head. He was holding up a fish and had a huge, prideful grin on his face, but a few teeth missing from his smile.

"I know that they're trying to be nice and all, but one more bloody casserole and I'm going to be sick!" Mrs. Strife continued to mumble as she wiped her eyes and began to open the door.

She was expecting to see another person pretending to cry and handing her a casserole. It was really, very sweet, but she now had to keep a list of how many dishes she had to return, and measure how much space was left in her refrigerator. Although, it wasn't who she expected to see, it was-

"This is Agent Tseng and Agent Elena," Tseng introduced in his monotone yet firm voice as he flashed his badge, only to put it back into his pocket after a few seconds of showing it. Elena nodded, shades over hers and Tseng's eyes, even though it was cloudy outside, reflecting Mrs. Strife's mood. The surprise on her face was quite apparent, still clutching her tissue, and her eyes still red, although they were wide open, along with her lips which were slightly parted.

"We're here on the whereabouts of your son." Tseng added, although he already knew that the entire town thought that he was dead, having seen the memorial to him on his way into the town. Cloud was the dead boy's name, although he and the fish shared last names, and looking at Mrs. Strife's appearance, he suspected that they also shared a fair amount of genes.

"Uh," Mrs. Strife began, biting her lip to keep herself from sobbing. "He-he died a few months ago…" She bit her lip even harder, and despite being trained to show no emotion, Elena's face showed a tiny bit of sympathy for the woman. "They never found the body." She finished in a whisper.

A huge lump appeared in Mrs. Strife's throat, and sorrow streaked across her face, her cheeks reddening and a few tears just beading up at the corners of her eyes.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Tseng lied. Elena still not saying a word.

"I, we, feel terrible for bothering you," Tseng began after a few seconds had passed. "but, we have a few questions for you concerning his 'case'."

"He has a case?! I thought that he was killed by, by, toxic fumes, and e-eaten by-!"

Mrs. Strife's voice cracked, shivering and trying her best to hold in any tears. Although, despite her desperate attempt to conceal her feelings, all of her pent up sobs were released in a hurricane of tears, and it landed right onto Tseng's shoulder. The man hugged her with a grimace on his face, Elena trying her best not to laugh at him. He slowly patted her shoulder as she sobbed, the bright orange ribbon that tied up her pony tail swishing back and forth as she wiped her nose on Tseng's suit. He sighed and looked down at her.

"It seems that we'll have to take our interrogation back to headquarters." He said disappointedly.

Mrs. Strife looked up with a surprised look on her face, just know realizing something.

"Wait a minute, who are you guys anywa-?"

Tseng, still looking down at her pulled out a needle and pushed it into her right shoulder blade. Mrs. Strife's red eyes rolled back into her skull and she fell right back into Tseng's arms unconscious.

Elena slipped her sunglasses off and put them into her pocket, helping Tseng carry the woman's body to the shiny black car parked in front of the house. They slowly made their way down the stairs, Tseng's arms under Mrs. Strife's armpits, and Elena carrying her feet.

"Sir." Elena began.

"Yes, Elena."

"Don't you think that we should've been a little easier on her?" Elena asked as they got to the bottom of the stairs.

"Why? We were going to tranquilize her anyway."

"I mean, you could've at least sympathized more. She just lost her son a couple months ago." They laid Mrs. Strife's body in the backseat, getting a few strange looks from the townspeople, but they decided that it wouldn't be the wisest thing to do if they messed with them. Tseng brushed his hands off as Elena put he sunglasses back on.

"She's a target of capture, this is our job. Sympathizing wasn't on the contract. You knew that you would have to do bad things to good people when you signed up for this."

"Yes, but I was sixteen, sir." Elena said as she took a seat in the front of the car and Tseng took the drivers seat.

"And you're lucky that you got this job at such a young age." Tseng answered harshly, pushing the keys into the ignition.

Elena, deciding that arguing with her superior at the current time probably wasn't the best thing to do, kept quiet and looked out of her window.

"That's right, mercy _wasn't _in the contract..." She whispered.

Tseng looked to her, his expression still the same, a straight face, and without saying a word he looked back to the road and they drove off. Shinra Inc. was a long drive from Nibelheim, and in this case, a long and silent drive.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"An' you really though' you two coul' escape, didn't ya?" Barret asked in his deep voice with a chuckle as he picked up the two escapees like they were mice.

"Uh…" Goldfish gulped as he noticed that only the very tips of his toes were touching the ground.

"The Presiden' will be very pleased to see tha' you two will be back behind bars!" Barret boomed with a loud "ha ha" at the end of his phrase.

Voices echoed down the hallway, someone screaming, "There over here!"

"Use the marble!" Zack ordered in a sharp whisper.

"I already told you, I don't really know how to use it!" Goldfish whispered back.

As the voices sounded like they were getting closer, Barret looked back anxiously. But, why? Those were his comrades.

"Just touch it, that seemed to work last time!"

"I don't know what it will do!"

"Just touch it!"

Goldfish pulled the materia out of his pocket poked it, although it had no effect.

"Why isn't it doing anything?!" Goldfish whispered frustratedly.

Just as Goldfish was trying to poke the thing harder, Barret rushed into the confiscated items room. The jump shook the two prisoners like a Christmas tree ornament in a n earthquake, making Goldfish nearly lose possession of the black materia. He let out a long sigh as he caught it, clutching it to his chest and then shoving it into his pocket again.

To the escapee's surprise, Barret put them down. What?! Why? He was the enemy, the person that was trying to apprehend them! Not just put them down without reason!

"You're probably confused,"

Goldfish and Zack looked up at Barret with a puzzled looks on both of their faces, although Zack's face looked rather pathetic because he had been beaten so badly, a new flow of blood dripping out of his nose. Barret continued.

"But, what you don't know is that I am actually a rebel,"

Now Goldfish and Zack looked at each other, still puzzled.

"Because President Shinra is a," Still stooping low to face Goldfish and Zack, being at least twice the size of them. "Disheveled scoundrel, a piece of crap, and a filthy liar, who screws up people's lives!"

"I can relate to that." Zack said casually which Goldfish responded to by elbowing him. Zack wheeled over in pain, just being beaten up, Goldfish probably hit a bruise.

Barret paused for a moment, but then continued at a faster pace when he heard one of the guards looking around saying, "I swear I saw them here!"

"Now, I'm going to offer you a deal,"

"Again…" Goldfish sighed, inaudible to Barret, but as payback, he was elbowed in the ribs by Zack.

"I will help you escape, if you will join me in getting revenge." Barret offered, the two escapees looking to each other, seeking the answer on what to do.

There was a loud noise outside of the door and Goldfish's eyes flew wide open.

"It's now or never." Barret taunted, increasing the pressure level to a higher percentage of perspiration dripping out of Goldfish's pores.

"Errg! Fine! But don't expect me to do anything too bad!"

"What!" Zack exploded, he never bound himself to anything.

"It's a deal!" Barret finalized as he roughly shook Goldfish's hand.

"What were you thinking?!" Zack asked. "You could've just used the marble thing!"

"It was our best bet." Goldfish answered simply, receiving a large handful of clothes from Barret. Zack snarked at the color he saw in the stack.

"Purple?"

Goldfish glared at him.

"Don't worry, mine isn't too great either." Zack said as he fished out a matching purple sweater, although slightly darker purple, from his bin of clothes on a nearby shelf.

The voices outside seemed like they were trying to jimmy the door open, but failing miserably since Barret had crunched the doorknob into the door with his bare hands.

"How are we going to get out, again?" Zack asked.

"This way." Barret pointed out as he pushed open a stone door leading into a secret passage.

"Convenient." Goldfish said, his eyebrows turning up slightly.

Although, Barret didn't go into the tunnel, and the two boys, thinking that this was urgent, stood there cluelessly.

"Well, change into your normal clothes! You don't want to be wearing that in the center of Midgar, I'll assure you of that!" Barret ordered.

The two boys looked at him with disbelief.

"Wait-, no, I have dignity!" Goldfish stuttered.

"I call that corner." Zack said casually as he limped over to a dark spot in one of the corners of the room.

Goldfish, looking around, figured that the other corner would suffice, although he still felt incredibly uncomfortable. Especially since guards were working on getting into the room.

"Well, go then!" Barret ordered.

Goldfish growled and made his way slowly to the corner, muttering curses the whole way.

When he had gotten there he unzipped the zipper to his prison suit and muttered more curses, swearing that he would never agree to a deal ever again in his entire life.

He awkwardly took his shirt off, looking in all directions too see if anyone else was looking.

When he was finished changing he noticed the scent of sweat on his filthy uniform and wondered if wherever he was going had a washing machine. Goldfish walked over to the center of the room where the stone opening to the secret passage way was and was roughly pushed through the door along with Zack. Barret used all of his might to close the door once they were inside, just making it as the guards had managed to break through the door and into the room. Zack smiled as he heard their confused phrases. "I thought that they were in here?" And "Where did they go?"

But was interrupted when both he and Goldfish were dragged down the passageway by Barret.

"No time to waste!" He said, going twice the pace that the injured Zack and exhausted Goldfish were, practically dragging them along.

The passage way was much like the sewer that Goldfish had encountered, minus the stink, although he didn't know that, having forgotten everything about Nibelheim. It was damp and dark, mice scurrying in all directions, Zack laughing at Goldfish a few times because he had run away from one of the furry disease carriers, receiving only a glare in return. The smell of it was musky, seeming like the tunnel hadn't been used for a long time, or even never used.

Every step they took was mixed with the little pitter patter of rats scurrying across the stone floor, and the soft yet eerie chatter of bats hanging overhead, making a symphony of bone chilling sounds.

The group, now walking since the guards didn't seem to have gotten into the tunnel, passed an unnerving looking piling of bones, Zack stopping to just poke it with his foot.

"How could someone die down here?" He asked.

"I don't know." Barret answered simply, not wanting to really speak at the current moment, concentrating on which way they would go next, the tunnel being like a labyrinth, one wrong turn and you could be lost forever. As they walked past it, Zack couldn't take his eyes off of the pile of bones, examining it, making sure that it wasn't just a prank that someone had pulled a long time ago to try to scare the crap out of their friends. But then was pulled along by Goldfish, who didn't show it as much, but was just as anxious about being in this musky and confined space as he was.

Out of nowhere Barret froze, and motioned for the two escapees to do the same.

"Shhh, I think I heard something." He shushed, putting a hand over Zack's mouth, knowing that he was the one that was most likely to talk. Zack knew this and made an angry gesture with his eyes, making a small grunt through Barret's hand.

The group heard a loud whoosh and saw a flash of red. Everyone was silent, only the subtle flutter of a moths wings remained inside of the tunnel.

"Everyone stay still." Barret ordered through his teeth.

They heard footsteps coming from down the tunnel.

_This must be the "Minotaur"... _Goldfish thought, remembering that story when he had seen the picture on the president's wall, but why? He'd never learned about that, at least he couldn't recall ever learning about it.

The footsteps ceased, and were replaced with another whoosh. A red cloak, it seemed was going in circles around the group, creating a strong wind in the tunnel. No one could see anything, all the dust that had been stirred up stinging their eyes. Goldfish was relying on his sense of hearing now, all he could hear was the violent whooshing of the cloak flying around them, but he could also hear faint shouts, but whose? He could hear someone shouting, but he couldn't quite make out who it was.

All of a sudden the whooshing stopped. Goldfish looked ahead of him, wiping his eyes to get a better look to see...Zack in a neck brace by a very tall figure in a red cloak, pointing a gun at his head. Well, at least now he knew who was shouting.

"Come on!" Zack shouted, not as scared as he was annoyed. "Let me go, man!" He clawed at the arm that held his neck so tightly, only to discover that it was a golden gauntlet. Great.

"Why are you here?" The figure asked, his voice deep and forceful, but it had the ability to send chills down one's spine.

Goldfish opened his mouth to answer, but Barret had this covered. He sprinted over to the man and tackled him. Goldfish ran over to help Zack up, and helped get his arm over his shoulder so that they could get out of there.

"Leave! I'll catch up with you in a few minutes" Barret commanded, still in the midst of trying to punch the "minotaur".

"But how will we know the way out?"

"Just," Barret dodged a gunshot, the bullet aimed straight for his face, although it hit the ceiling. "Follow the light at the end of the tunnel! The exit should be close!"

With that, Goldfish helped Zack along best he could, going at the pace a two-legged racer would. He was getting very anxious, the noises of the fight getting farther and farther away, although to their dismay, it sounded like the fight was not going to be in Barret's favor.

"Come on, Zack!"

"I'm trying!"

They were almost out of the tunnel, now Goldfish could see a clear light seeping through a stone. Running as fast as they could, not very fast since Zack was hurt so badly, but still getting somewhere, all noises from the fight had been silenced. Goldfish hoped that Barret was running down the hallway right then, but they didn't hear loud thuds on stone like they would if a person was running towards them. Instead, they hear a loud whoosh and saw a flash of red.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"So, you're telling me that Cloud's alive?!" Mrs. Strife asked, shocked to hear the good news, but wondered how in the world it could possibly be true, perhaps they were just pulling her leg to squeeze some information out of her.

"Well, we're not certain of that, he goes by the name 'Goldfish' now." Tseng answered from the other side of the interrogation table.

"And he was captured?" She asked, her tone getting a bit less excited sounding, no one wants to hear that their son has gone to prison.

"I'm afraid so, Madam." Mrs. Strife looked at the pool of water that was left on the desk by the people that were in the room prior to Mrs. Strife's arrival at Shinra Inc. "But that's not what we're here for, we want to know about the black materia that your son possesses and if you know where he got it from."

"I have no idea where he got it from, I'm just so happy that he's alive!" Mrs. Strife said through a happy sniffle, a tissue still crumpled up in her hand.

Tseng growled.

"Although I did see this girl at his funeral."

Tseng looked up.

"She told me that he was a great man and that she appreciated his help, even though she wished that it hadn't cost so much. I had no idea what she was talking about though, I had never even seen the girl before and here she was talking about my son like he was a good friend of hers."

"Did you catch her name?" Tseng asked, folding his hands in front of him on the table and leaning forward, seeming to be very intrigued.

"I can't really think of it that clearly."

Tseng sighed once more.

"But, I think it's Tifa."

Tseng looked up, repeating the actions that he had just performed seconds ago.

"Tifa Lockhart."

_That's the end of chapter 8! I hope that you enjoyed reading this and are on the edge of your seat as the plot thickens! _

_I hope that you all had wonderful weeks and are going to have an even better weekend._

_Thank you all so much for sticking with me as I continue to write this :)_

_Goodnight!_

_-Dragonbytes :)_


	9. Ramen Noodles

_Hello dearest readers! Fresh off of the top of my mind, please enjoy the 9th chapter of Mr. Goldfish Strife! I was right, the homework load did grow over the Summer! So, I'm really sorry if these chapters are a tiny bit later than normal. The tests and quizzes load has also grown over the Summer...yay! (*sarcasm*)_

_And in the winter I must warn you, swim season is both energy and time sucking, yet so much fun! I promise you that I will not give up this though! I already have thoughts for the climax and ending of this story, and if I can't get them out of my head then I'll explode._

_Hmmm, finish my story or explode? _

_Finish my story Explode_

_Anyways, I'm guessing that you guys might have an idea who the mystery man in the red cloak is :) _

_Happy reading!_

**Chapter 9:**

"Who are you?" The man in the red cloak asked as he landed right in front of the two soon to be free prisoners.

Goldfish was surprised that he asked this, all he was expecting was for all of his blood to be suddenly sucked out of his body, or a bullet lodged into his skull. Besides "who are you?" is what Goldfish was thinking himself!

"Uh, I'm hungry," Zack answered, feeling that wit was always successful, although he was horribly mistaken. For this particular situation respect would probably be a better escape mechanism, either that or just the ability to kick vampire (or whatever the strange man was) butt. "And that's tired." He said, pointing his thumb towards Goldfish, which only earned him an elbow to the gut.

The strange man pointed the barrel of his very large gun straight at the two boys.

_Zack… _Goldfish thought. Goodness, this guys mouth could start a war!

"Ok, use the marble now!" Zack whispered.

Goldfish reached into his pocket.

"Freeze." The man ordered, noticing this movement, although he had no idea what Goldfish was reaching for, he knew that it was probably going to be harmful to him.

"Now, tell me again who you are an-?" The man asked in his cold voice, but stopped abruptly in the middle, surprising the two escapees.

"Where did you get that from?" He asked.

"What do you mean?" Goldfish asked.

"The outfit."

Goldfish looked confused, but the man continued.

"Where did you get it from?"

"Uhh…"

"It's a uniform, right?" The man asked, lowering his gun.

_How does he know this? _Goldfish thought.

"How do you-?"

"You used to be in the circus, didn't you?" The man continued to interrogate, lowering his gun more with every word he said.

"Yes, but how do you-?" Goldfish began, but was interrupted again.

"You worked for the professor."

"Hojo?"

When Goldfish asked this the man snarled.

"Hojo." The man said, letting his guard down completely. "Then how did you end up here?"

The man looked forwards, only to be met by a blast of energy, sending him flying out of the opening in the stone wall.

Goldfish and Zack scampered out of the building, running away from where the man had landed. The man shook off his hard impact with the ground

"Wait!" He shouted as the two escaped prisoners ran into the center of Midgar. Although, before he could run after them, something that looked like a very angry rhinoceros was charging at him. Coming back for revenge, was Barret Wallace, charging down the passageway and out into the field, a set path for the strange man's position. Barret and the man collided and, without warning, the man was on the ground again. Dodging angry punches, the man in red got up and started running to the center of Midgar, chasing after his interrogation subjects.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Yuffie Kisaragi was checking out of her waitress job at "Midgar Bistro", the job bored her, she wanted some action! But, at least it kept her fed and gave her just enough money to pay rent. She was dressed in her usual sneakers and apron, and as usual, absolutely exhausted. Her feet ached and all she wanted to do was have a nice hot bowl of ramen. And those were her plans...well until a man in a red cloak came charging towards her, behind him another man, much larger, and had a very angry look on his face. Without warning, the man seized her and wrapped his arm around her neck.

"Hey! What are you-"

"You are from now on, my hostage." The man answered.

"I hate you." Yuffie said in a very angry, and very disappointed tone, her bowl of ramen was running farther and farther away from her.

The strange man pointed his gun to her head as the very angry looking man approached, along with two others, one with blonde hair (Yuffie thought it was ridiculous) and the other with raven hair (equally ridiculous).

"If you don't stop pursuing me, then I will shoot this girl." The man shouted.

The angry man, along with the two boys with ridiculous hair, stopped in their tracks.

Yuffie clawed at the arm that was wrapped around her neck, only to find out that it wasn't an arm at all, it was a golden gauntlet. Great.

"I'm warning you, if you don't let me go then you're gonna get it!"

The man in red scoffed.

"Yeah right."

Yuffie smirked, this was going to be fun.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The people of Midgar swarmed around the scene, this was the first taste of drama they had had since the geostigma outbreak. Eyes wide and phones out they watched as the scene with the strange man and the waitress unfolded.

Meanwhile, Barret, Goldfish and Zack were busy trying to get away (Goldfish and Zack) or find a way to beat the strange man up (Barret, of course). Goldfish, Zack still leaning on his shoulder for support manouvered his way through the swarms of people,some of them graciously stepping out of the way, and then others being like Grumpy the dwarf and abruptly shoving the two away. Thank goodness they weren't wearing their orange prison suits now, if they were then they would be toast!

Yuffie, having taken "classes" from her father, knew exactly what to do in a situation like this. Taking a deep breath, Yuffie gripped the man's arm for balance and brought the toe of her sneaker high enough and with enough force that it connected with the strange man's nose, making a shocking cracking noise, the surrounding civilians gasped as the man crouched down in pain and clutched his nose. She was just a waitress!

Yuffie, seizing her chance, and regaining her faith in getting that bowl of ramen tonight. made a run for the back of the crowd, pushing her way through, trying desperately to get as far as she could from the strange man. But, for some reason, the crowd parted as she went through, and their faces filled with fear. Sure, Yuffie knew she had just kicked a guy in the face, but it wasn't like she was going to hurt _them. _

Feeling cold breath behind her, Yuffie soon found out why the Midgar civilians were so frightened. She slowly turned around, figuring that the grip on her shoulder was inescapable, even if she were to kick his hand. That was the thing though, the grasp on her shoulder wasn't a hand. Yuffie peered fearfully up into the man's face, he was snarling, but that wasn't the only frightening feature, his nose was cracking back into place. Each click the broken nose made as it shifted into place sending shivers down Yuffie's spine. Who did she just kick in the face?

Without hesitation Yuffie took a swing at the man's face, only to be caught firmly by the metal gauntlet and flipped over, hitting the ground with a hard _smack! _Making Yuffie's ears ring. She quickly got up and shook her head to stop her ears from ringing so much. The strange man grinned slyly as if to say "game on!" Apparently receiving this message, Yuffie charged at the man with full force aiming a punch right at his face, although he caught it again, but learning from last time, Yuffie used her other hand to pry his gauntlet from her arm. Surprised, the man was taken off guard for just a millisecond, but just enough time to send a bone crunching punch at his face. Yuffie smiled at her victory, but his face just clicked into place, what a short lived victory. Now it was his turn, he aimed at Yuffies face, although she dodged the blow with her forearm, kicking at his knees, although he dodged it. Yuffie struck again, a firm blow to the chest, but that too, was short lived, as the strange man grabbed Yuffies arm and flipped her over his shoulder. Yuffie landed on the ground with a _thud _and grunted as the ringing in her ears was so high pitched that she couldn't hear anything else around her. She saw horrified faces on some of the spectators, although she couldn't hear any gasps. The man casually walked over to her, the last bits in his nose clicking into place, all the civilians backing away, and one or two calling the police. The man reached down to pick her up by the collar of her waitress outfit, but Yuffie, still trying to regain focus kicked the man's feet, making him fall over onto the ground with an even louder _thud! _But shook it off like it was nothing. When he approached her this time Yuffie tried again, but the strange man had learned and stepped out of the way of her kick. Yuffie growled, although her moment of frustration was outlived, she was soon overcome with the sensation of fear as she was picked up by her collar. Yuffie took a few swings and kicks at the guy, but his arms were incredibly long! She couldn't reach him to do any damage, if any of her blows would even do any damage. The strange man flung Yuffie at the brick wall across from the diner that she works at. hitting it with a crack and slumping to the ground. Her face was covered in dirt and brick dust. She didn't know if anything was broken because everything hurt like it was broken...maybe everything was broken. But, Yuffie didn't care about her physical injuries, it was her ego that was taking most of the blows.

Yuffie thought that she could defeat any human, having taken martial arts from her father back in Wutai and kicking the sorry butts of all of her classmates. It wasn't as if this guy was the first to mess with her, every mugger and bandit around who did anything to her was now behind bars with a few limbs in a cast, no biggie! How was this guy any different?!  
The strange man approached Yuffie once more, maybe he was going to fling her up against another building. As if she hadn't had enough already! Apparently getting kicked in the face wasn't too good for someone else's ego either. Although his face never changed, not even if his nose was broken, he didn't show any sign of emotion, while Yuffie showed every sign of emotion she could. His face always firm, always tough, Yuffie thought it was kind of- Ehem! I mean she _would _have thought that it was hot if that firm, never changing face wasn't beating her up!

As the man stepped in front of her and stooped over to pick her up once more, she thought that she would be beaten to death. The police still hadn't arrived yet. One of the reasons that Midgar was such a dangerous city was, in fact, because the police force "took their time" on the way to a crime scene. This place really needed double agents.

Goodbye world.

Goodbye ramen.

Goodbye stupid guy with hot face.

Goodbye guy with stupid hair…

Wait! Who was this guy with the stupid hair?

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"What next?" A tall man with red hair asked as he kicked the body of a deceased townsmen, his eyes wide open with terror, but apparently his reflexes weren't fast enough to save his skin from an incoming blade.

The other man didn't answer.

"It wasn't in Wutai..._she _wasn't in Wutai, so, what next?" The man with the auburn hair continued to ask.

"We continue to search." The other man answered in a monotone voice, using a piece of the king of Wu Tai cloak that he had cut off to clean his very long sword.

"Where?" The man asked, tossing an apple up and down in his hand. "Midgar?"

"No, we save that one for last. The civilian population is too great."

"Fine, then what about Bone Village?"

"People there are weak." The man said, not looking at his interrogator.

The auburn haired man stood there in silence, and took a bite into his apple with a shrug, as if to say, "So?"

The man who was cleaning his sword looked back at him, saw the confused look on his face and sighed.

"It would be boring...especially for you." He then returned to cleaning his sword.

"Ah," The man with the auburn hair said, still tossing his apple up and down in in his palm.

"Rocket town?"

The other man grunted.

"We went there a month ago."

"Doesn't mean we can't check again!" The man with the auburn hair continued to pursue the idea of going back to Rocket Town.

The man with the shredded piece of robe sighed.

"Tifa would be an idiot to go there."

"The Golden Saucer?"

"And why in the world would she be there?" The other man said in disbelief as he looked back to his comrade, but then back to his blade.

"What? If I was in fear of my life then I would go to an amusement park! Come on, Seph!"

"Exactly, only _you _would do that! And the answer is still no."

The man with the auburn hair took another bite out of his apple, each crunch annoying Sephiroth even more.

"Please!" He said through a bunch of apple bits.

"No."

"If we don't go to the Golden Saucer then I'll start reciting poetry again!"

Sephiroth growled.

"Okay, your choice!" The man laughed as he took a booklet out of his long red coat and cracked it open.

"Even if the morrow is barren of prom-."

"SHUT UP!" Sephiroth shouted, pointing his blade at the auburn haired man.

"Fine, fine!" He said as he put his hands up and put his booklet back into his coat.

"How about Nibelheim, then?"

Sephiroth sighed as he secured his very long sword by his side and tossed the shredded robe back onto the body it had come from.

"Fine." The auburn haired man kicked the body of the dead King of Wutai to the side as he made his way towards the door after Sephiroth.

"Nibelheim it is, Genesis."

Genesis chuckled.

"Very well."

_And so concludes chapter 9!_

_Sorry for the wait guys! I have lots of homework this year! It has officially earned the nickname of, "High School Bootcamp"!_

_Was Vincent Valentine badass enough for you? (You know who you are :)_

_And I know that some of you will be very pleased that Genesis is now in the story :)_

_Anyways, I hope that you enjoyed it! Please comment to tell me how much or how little (actually if it's how little then keep it to yourself :) you liked it!_

_Have a great week and I'll see you next time!_

_-Dragonbytes :)_


	10. Goblins

_Hello dearest readers!_

_Here's chapter 10! And time for me to have my chapter 10 mini party :)_

_I'm trying to rush this along so it can get to the climax already! But, there are still a few things I have to take care of, one of those things being character development for everyone! And fight scenes and maybe some fluff later on etc, etc…_

_I am also placing a warning on this chapter, it's going to get a bit gory at some points. It's fairly mild, so unless you can get queasy very, very easily then I think you'll be fine. I'm just putting a warning on here so that if you are one of those people then you can skip it if you want to. But, as I mentioned, it really is fairly mild, but if you like that kind of stuff, read on! _

_Also, if you are easily frightened, then I would suggest not reading this in the middle of the night!_

_Please enjoy and please, by all means, review!_

_Happy reading!_

**Chapter 10:**

_I swear, if this guy drags me into anything else, I'm going to shoot myself! _Zack thought as he shook the unconscious girl resting up against the wall, trying to wake her up. But when she only answered with a pained moan, he took pity on her, blood dripping out of her face and bruises and cuts all over her body. Zack looked to Goldfish who was standing right in front of him, facing the strange man in the red cloak.

"I didn't know you'd go from living in a secret passageway to beating up civilians in just one day." Goldfish snarled.

Zack came up behind him, Yuffie hoisted over his shoulder.

"Where should I take her?" He asked.

"Zack…" Goldfish replied, still trying to keep an eye on the strange man in the red cloak.

"What?"

"You might want to carry her 'properly' she's just been beaten half to death!"

"Oh!" Zack said as he brought Yuffie off of his shoulder and into his arms.

"Where should I take her then?"

"Anywhere, just don't run into any trouble."

"Roger!" Zack said as shouted as he ran off towards the center of Midgar.

The strange man then growled, upset that he didn't actually get to kill the stupid girl that kicked him in the face.

"You could've just let me alone to kill the stupid girl."

"I _could've, _but I didn't." Goldfish answered.

The man growled once more.

"Just let me get through here so I can get the dirty work over with." The man in the red cloak advanced towards where Zack had gone. Goldfish stepped in front him to block his path making the man stopped in his tracks, confused.

"What do you care, you've never met that girl in your life?" The man asked, his voice still monotone and unanimated.

"It's human nature." Goldfish answered firmly.

"What? The sudden urge to do something stupid?" The strange man scoffed.

"The urge to protect someone who is just picked on because they appear to be weaker."

"Humph." The man answered, uncaring. Being so full of himself he went on to roughly walk through Goldfish's arms thinking that he would go through just as easily as he had beaten up that young girl, but he couldn't have been more wrong.

Instead of meeting what he hoped to, the air just in front of him, he met a fist. That fist, to his surprise sent him flying into the wall on the other side of the street. The civilians gasped as bricks tumbled over the strange mans head and hitting the ground with each ones individual _chink_. The strange man in the red cloak got up and brushed himself off, the bones of his face and back clicking back into place.

_Bring it on!_

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"What the hell do you mean by 'safe'?" Zack growled as he roamed aimlessly around the slums of Midgar. "Should I take her to a nunnery?"

"No…" The girl in his arms groaned.

"Oh! You're awake!" Zack shouted happily.

"I wanna go home…" She continued to mumble.

"Ok. Where's your home?" Zack asked, looking around frantically and out of breath for a safe place to tend to the girl's wounds.

"I wanna go home…" She mumbled once more before she passed out again.

"Great! Thanks for the help." Zack said sarcastically as he continued to look around.

"Where to go, where to go…" He muttered. All he could see was a playground with a creepy piece of playground equipment shaped like a moogle and on the other side of him a strange looking piece of rubble shaped strangely like a car. Either that or it used to be a car.

Zack decided that going towards the strange looking moogle would be the best way to go, considering that it would make more sense to go to a playground then a piece of junk. While there he looked around a bit, the entire playground was screaming, "Neglect!" For all of the equipment was rusted and bent, with metal bars sticking out of the top of the slide.

"Real beat up, huh…" He muttered as he looked into one of the concrete tunnels on the ground, which made him wonder why some kid would want to go crawling around in a concrete tube, but then again, kids are kids.

All of a sudden Zack heard a loud banging noise coming from under the slide. He slowly tiptoed over to where the noise came from, laying Yuffie down to lean up against the concrete tunnel, making her groan again.

"Hello?" He asked as he edged over towards where the noise had come from.

Zack lay a hand on the top of the slide, leaning down so that he could see what was under it. Once again, it was dark, and he couldn't see much, although there was some light, red light. Wait, _two _red lights, small yet bright, and very eerie looking.

"Strange…" He muttered as he lifted his gaze up from under the slide and to the playground around him, although he wasn't particularly pleased with what he saw. Surrounding him were around fifty tiny creatures. Each one with red eyes, glowing like fiery coal, they also had miniature horns. They were fluffy like fifty demented teddy bears with blank expressions. Their claws were long and razor sharp, blood dripping off of them. One of the goblin creatures opened it's mouth slightly to reveal tiny, although very sharp, teeth, stained with the entrails of who knows what. Zack couldn't quite figure out the color since they were splotched with red, it appeared to be an auburn color, but he didn't really care about classifying them under a certain color, he was more focused on how he was going to get out of there. Throughout the crowd of demented teddy bears there were scattered limbs and entrails, the fingers and toes still attached, the blood flowing out of them still warm, the pink fingernails of one of the arms still shiny. Fresh meat. One of the creatures was dragging what looked like red noodles, although Zack didn't want to think about what they really were. One of the creatures took a bite out of a calf and foot, making him cringe. He slowly inched his way over to Yuffie, looking over to the goblins occasionally to see what they were doing, although it didn't change, their eyes still locked on him, making him feel uneasy.

"Yuffie!" He yelled, trying to both wake her up so that he wouldn't have to carry her and interfere with the blood chilling sound of bones cracking and fresh meat being pulled apart by fangs.

One of the goblin creatures let it's paw glide over his leg, it's long claws sending chills down his spine. It unleashed a high pitched cackle and gave him a look of raw appetite. Zack reached Yuffie, picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, thinking that it would be easier to run, if he needed to, if she was on his shoulder rather than in his arms. He slowly manouvered his way through the crowd, each large step he took making Yuffie moan again. Each creature was moving around, making it hard for Zack to step over them, along with the distracting sound of creatures feasting on human flesh. He finally stepped out, exhaling a long sigh of relief. Although, just as he thought that he had made it out, one goblin creature decided that they had been too easy on the strange man with the raven black hair and stepped right under where he planned for his foot to land.

Zack was unnerved when he heard a squeal of pain and lifted his foot to see that he had just stepped on an auburn tail.

"Oh, shi-!" He said right before a loud battle cry echoed throughout the slums, a very high pitched shriek, and the sound of one hundred tiny footsteps all head for one particular boy who stepped on one particular tail. One which happened to belong to a bloodthirsty, man eating goblin.

With only two things to do and unable to get to his sword without chopping Yuffie in half, Zack ran. He ran faster than he had ever run before, sprinting through the rubble and jumping over each little obstacle that got in his way. The goblins were hot on his tail, scratching at his legs and leaping up trying to grab Yuffie, still dangling off of Zack's shoulder.

Zack was nearing the gate to sector two. He was almost there, just a couple hundred feet and he could close the gate and be out of there, although there was a slight problem, despite their size, the miniature goblins ran fairly fast, catching up to Zack quickly. The small creatures grasped at Zack's legs and jumped up in the air trying to get a hold of him, or even a nice juicy bite out of one of his shoulders. One of them managed to jump up on his shoulder, digging it's teeth deep into his arm right before he was knocked off by the other fist. He grasped his wounded appendage and grunted, it was deep, and excruciatingly painful.

_Come on! _He thought as he neared the gate. _Almost!_

Blood dripped out of the bite wound on his arm as curses leaked without prevail from his lips. The demonic shrieks echoed behind him, making him run faster, the gate was now only a few strides away. The creatures had now caught up to him, grappling onto his and Yuffie's hair and scratching his back and legs. Dirt and blood were now smudged on his face, the creatures having smeared it on their in their desperate plight to eat him.

Zack was now only a couple strides away, the lever to pull the gate closed coming into view. As one of the creatures managed to get onto his head, about to crunch it's teeth into his skull he grasped his fingers around the lever and with all his might, pulled. He then used the other fist to knock off the goblin creature from his head.

He sprinted through the gate, kicking any goblin creatures that had managed to escape back into sector one. Once the gate was closed, Zack could still hear the demonic shrieks seeping the the metal gates. He hoped that they couldn't get through, but even if they could it would take them a while.

Zack heaved a long sigh of relief as he nearly collapsed to the ground, his entire body bruised, the wound on his arm still wet with blood. Yuffie groaned, still passed out, but probably not having a very good sleep considering that she had been jostled around so much she could possibly have brain damage. When Zack thought that nothing else could possibly happen in this one day, he received a tap on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, would you like to have a fl-Whoa! You sure look banged up!"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Voices echoed through the empty hallways of what once was a circus, and an evil cackle followed. The Professor, having already spent all of what President Rufus had given him was back in his lab with no money and no business to make money from.

He now had the freedom to do whatever he wanted, and could now experiment with whatever he wanted. One of the things that the President had given him was that particular freedom. Now the government couldn't restrain him and he could do whatever he wished. Whether it was a stray dog that he had picked up on the street or a woman that he captured while pretending to be a taxi driver, he now had test specimens.

"Now Mrs...you didn't tell me your name." Hojo said sinisterly with a hint of forgetfulness as he looked up to the woman suspended in the tank of mako energy. He then regained his focus from trying to remember her name and said,

"Well, whatever your name is, it's about time for you medication!" He giggled cheerfully. For him shooting chemicals through his test subjects was like recess for a kindergartener.

This particular chemical; however, he had been using on many other test subjects, and if they had gone wild and tried to eat him, then he would simply unleash them into the wild and let them feast on unwitting civilians.

He picked up the tube that was leading to one of her arms and shot chemicals through it, sending a horrible, tarish, black and green substance through the tube and into the woman's body. Hojo cleaned off the needle with a stained cloth, but was startled when he heard a deep growl from within the tank and looked up, dropping the needle and pressing his palms up against the glass. His eager eyes widened, he had been waiting for something to happen for days.

The woman transformed, her once pale and clear skin turning an ethereal light blue, her once brown eyes turning a wild salmon pink, her once beautiful auburn hair streaking pure silver and her hands shriveling into nailless fingertips.

All the while Hojo, eyes wide with interest cackled madly. His experiment was a success and now he could really show his hate for Gaia and all of it's inhabitants.

"Your new name shall be Mrs...hmmm, tricky, I'll think of one later!"

_Well, that concludes yet another chapter of the the adventures of our fishy friend. It was a bit dark, but then again, if it wasn't going to get dark soon, then when was it going to get dark?_

_I know that this is a bit late, but I've been incredibly busy. I actually went on a rafting trip this past weekend that gave me the cold. rafting in 50 degree water with 50 degree air, yeah, not a good idea! they did have good cocoa though :)_

_Please comment and I will hopefully see you guys next week!_

_-Dragonbytes :)_


	11. Friends and Foes

_G'day dearest readers, It's Fall Break! YAY!_

_I hope that you enjoyed chapter 10, and hopefully read it after I re-published it without typos. Especially that one line where I said that Zack "was" pleased to see the goblins, no he was not happy to see that he was about to be eaten, so I went and fixed that when I read over it! _

_I hope that you are having a lovely Fall Break, and if you're not on FB, then I hope that when it comes around it will be very restful :)_

_Please enjoy and comment if you enjoyed this next chapter! Also, send me a PM if you have any questions._

_Happy reading!_

**Chapter 11:**

A searing pain raced up and down Goldfish's back as his entire body was slammed onto the ground making a hard _smack! _The civilians looked on and gasped, although they could've left any time, right now they were just sitting ducks. The strange man in the red cloak looked on in disgust.

_Humans are stupid._

Goldfish slowly pushed himself up from the dirt with a grunt, only for the strange man's foot to connect with his face and push him to the ground again. The surrounding civilians gasped once more.

"Is it also human nature to be constantly defeated?" The strange man mocked.

Goldfish pushed himself up and looked up into the man's red eyes.

"I have a question," He said with a pained grunt as his once broken nose snapped into place and the cuts on his face healed themselves.

"What?" The man said in an annoyed tone.

"What do you have against humans?"

The man didn't answer and only stared at the ground. Only to look up when he realized something crucial.

"Why did your face heal up? That doesn't happen to normal humans." He asked, his voice less monotone then before.

"What if I'm not human."

The man growled.

"Quit annoying me."

"I honestly don't know if I am or not." Goldfish said as he shrugged his shoulders, and his nose snapped back into place along with the cuts on his face healing up. Goldfish, still not know whether anything was normal or not even after all this time, shrugged it off like it was something that happened to normal people every day.

The civilians were now getting bored and started to leave, one by one slowly going to get coffee at the nearest cafe. The Midgar police, of course, were still nowhere to be seen.

"What?" The strange man asked, his voice now even more animated, his mood switching from boredom to being suddenly intrigued. "You don't know if you're human or not."

"Someone once told me that I was a man."

"Then wouldn't you trust them?"

"I don't know." Goldfish answered blankly as more of the civilian crowd started to spread out.

"Why not?" The strange man asked.

"Because I don't know who to trust anymore." Goldfish said as he walked away.

The man simply grunted, he knew what it was like to feel like everyone in this world were just selfish liars who only cared for themselves.

"Nice fight, by the way!" Goldfish called back to the man, breaking his focus from the ground and making him look up.

"Where are you going?" the man called back.

"To find my friend!" With that Goldfish ran forwards in the direction that Zack had gone in.

Still looking at the ground, the strange man thought about the last time he had trusted someone, but then realized something. His friend!

_Wait a minute! _The man in the red cloak looked up and grit his teeth. _The little runt got me side tracked! I still need to get that stupid girl! _

The man growled loudly.

_And his uniform! It looked so familiar!_

The strange man was about to go running after the "man" with the ridiculous hair, but all too soon his attention was directed to somewhere else.

"Raaaaahh!" A voice boomed from far beyond the crowd. The remaining civilians gasped as a man with chocolate brown skin came sprinting through the streets like a charging rhinoceros.

The strange man's face sunk.

_Not this guy again. _

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"W-what?" Zack mumbled as his vision became blurry from his fatigue and blood loss.

"Are you alright?!"

Zack sniffled a few blood droplets from his earlier beating back into his nose. The woman in front of him looked on in shock.

"Whatcha got there?" He asked, trying to get her off of the topic that he looked like he had just survived a zombie apocalypse.

"Oh!" She yelped, snapping herself out of shock and shuffling what was in her hands. "These? Oh, these are fliers for the circus that I'm helping to start. But, whoa! Are you sure you okay?!"

"Could I see one?" Zack asked, using one of the hands that he was using to hold Yuffie up to grab one of the fliers that were in the girls hands.

"Sure."

"So, uh," Zack said, his nose bleeding again, putting a hand to his nose to try to stop the flow, holding Yuffie on his shoulder with only his elbow. "What made you want to start a circus?" He asked, still trying to deter her attention from his battle scars and onto something else.

"Well," The girl said, looking up as if she was trying to remember something. "I've done circus work before."

"Uh huh." He said, reading the sheet of paper.

"But I was fired."

"So, this is revenge?" Zack asked, looking up from the sheet of paper.

"Sort of, but it's more of a-yeah it's revenge."

"Got it."

The girl continued.

"Well, one day this kid came along and he changed everything, the guy I was working for paid special attention to him and he was really strong and really ho-."

She stopped when she noticed Zack eyeing her like she was getting off track.

"Oh! Sorry!" She apologized before she went on with the rest of her story.

"Well, you see, the government got involved."

"Oh." Zack said sympathetically.

"And then I found out that the only person I trusted in life was a complete and utter ass."

"Ouch."

"Yeah, poor Goldfish, he was-"

"Goldfish!" Zack shouted as he dropped the flier and looked at her.

"You know him?!" The girl asked in shock as her face reddened.

"Yeah, he broke me out of prison!" Zack said excitedly as he adjusted Yuffie on his shoulder, which of course made her groan.

"Sound like him…" The girl muttered. "Did he mention me at all?" She asked.

"What's your name?" He asked, looking her in the eye.

"Jessie!" She said excitedly.

"Hmm, nope, never heard of you."

_Great…_ Jessie thought.

"Is he alright?"

"I think so." Zack answered, thinking just now about how his time with crazy red cloak man was going.

"What do you mean 'you think so'?" Jessie asked with a concerned tone to her voice.

"Well, you see-" Zack said awkwardly, only to be interrupted by something he really didn't want to hear.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

_Just a half an hour earlier…_

"Zack!" Denzel shouted as he wandered aimlessly throughout the slums of sector 6.

"Zack!" He shouted once more, a metal rod dragging behind him as a safety precaution, Zack taught him to do that.

He growled when he heard and saw nothing of his lost friend.

"He should've come back by now...Zack!"

He growled and then sat down on a piece of rubble.

"This is hopeless…" He mumbled through his hands.

Denzel sat in silence, waiting for Zack to just pop out of nowhere, although something told him that that was the last thing that was going to happen. It wasn't as if Zack was famous for falling from the sky or something like that. He was quite spontaneous though, like the time Zack took him in…

_It was a cold day in Midgar, rain was dripping out of the cracks in each sector's wedge of plate and Denzel had nowhere to go and nothing to eat. A nice woman had handed him a jacket and a pair of shoes while he was begging at his corner of the street, but he hadn't had food in a little more than a week and was starving, his stomach felt like an empty cavity and none of the people in the slums wanted to offer him any food. In such a terrible place you had to fend for yourself, and only yourself, that woman who gave him the jacket and shoes must have been a plate dweller. It was now night time and Denzel was nearing his ninth day without food and was about to fall over from hunger, in fact, he thought that when he fell asleep that night he wouldn't wake up the next morning. The smells from a nearby shop didn't help either, it smelled like fried food and chicken tenders, along with that sweet scent of freshly baked cinnamon buns. Denzel's stomach grumbled and he placed a hand over it, a frown on his face. No money equals no cinnamon buns, unless…_

No! Dad told me never to steal! _He thought. Although, at this time, his moral conscience wasn't controlling his actions, it was his instinct of survival that was making those kind of decisions. The baker was in the back storeroom, he wouldn't notice if just _one _cinnamon bun went missing, besides it would be for a good cause, a good cause for his stomach!_

_Taking the opportunity that his father told him never to take Denzel slowly tiptoed into the shop and grabbed a cinnamon bun, sinking his teeth into as fast as he could, it was warm and fresh, sweet on the tip of Denzel's tongue. His mouth dripped a bit of saliva since his mouth had been watering ever since he stepped into the shop, Denzel was in heaven, the only catch was that he wasn't. He forgot that this was reality, and in reality you could go to prison for stealing a cinnamon bun. _

"_Hey you!" A rough voice boomed from behind the counter. "What do you think you're doing?!"_

_Denzel made a run for it, sprinting out the door of the shop, cinnamon bun in hand. Before this he practically had no energy left and was running at this speed purely on adrenaline. But he wasn't the only fast sprinter in Midgar, apparently the baker was too, and with Denzel's energy dwindling, the baker was catching up to him. In fact, the baker came so close that he was able to roughly grab Denzel by his collar, making him drop the cinnamon bun, and then throw him to the ground. Denzel didn't even bother to get up, hiding his face in his shirt._

"_That'll teach ya not to steal from my shop!" The baker mocked as he picked Denzel up by the collar once more. The boy was cold, wet and afraid, yet the baker's mercy had left him. _

"_I-I was hungry, sir."_

"_So?! You should've bought it not stolen it!" The man shouted as he threw poor Denzel to the ground again. Denzel thought with all his heart that this was it, he was going to prison and that was that. He knew that he was never meant to be more than an orphan and now a thief, but now even the smallest flicker of hope that he had was doused by the days cold rain. _

_Midgar Prison was the absolute worst place you could go, he would be beaten to death by the older and stronger juvenile delinquents and would die as a useless orphan who never amounted to anything. All hope was lost until-_

"_What do you think you're trying to do messing with a kid like that?!" A voice shouted from a few yards away. Denzel heard footsteps on the gravel coming towards him and the baker. Although that was the last thing he heard aside from the baker's, "Oh no, I wasn't messing with a kid, he was like that when I found him!" and the _drips _and _splats _of the raindrops seeping through the plates above before he finally lost consciousness._

_Denzel thought he was dead for a few moments, after the hunger and fatigue along with being thrown onto the ground twice, Denzel's body was on the verge of giving up. When he passed out Denzel thought that he was dead. Only until his eyes cracked open to see that he was, in fact, in a better place, just not the one that he was thinking of. _

"_Hey! It's good to see that you're up!" _

Denzel's train of thought was interrupted by an unnervingly deep voice coming from the shadows.

"You're That Fair boy's kid aren't you?"

Denzel jumped, grabbing his metal rod and pointing it in the direction of the voice.

"W-who's there?" He asked, his voice shaking.

"I'm not here to hurt you! I'm here to help you!" The voice continued to say in the darkness. "You're looking for a man named Zack correct?"

Denzel lowered his staff slightly.

"Y-yes, how did you know that?"

"The government gets a hold of lots of information." The man said as he stepped out of the shadows, sliding two black gloves onto his hands, his dark hair flowing behind him.

"Now," He offered. "Would you like to go and see Zack?"

Denzel backed away, a fearful look on his face, Zack had told him about the Turks and how you had to stay away from them.

Tseng kept on advancing on Denzel, slowly making each step, looking down on Denzel as if he was a subject of prey, which in fact, he was.

"Get away from me!" Denzel shouted, only to back up into someone even worse than the man who was advancing on him, this one had hair the color of maraschino cherries.

Reno let out a disturbing chuckle as he put a gag over Denzels mouth, fastening it tightly in the back.

"What'd we do with him now?"Reno said as he bound Denzel's hands behind his back, almost ignoring Denzel's desperate yet futile will to escape.

"We take him to Zack, those were the Presidents orders. We need to get the goldfish, this is only step one."

"Where is Zack anyway?"

Another turk slunk out of the shadows, this one with no hair at all.

"Sector one." Rude stated blankly.

"Well then what're we waiting for?" Reno asked, making his way to the helicopter that was stationed nearby.

"Nothing, nothing at all."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

A hard brown fist came hurtling towards the strange man in the red cloak's face. He skillfully dodged it as he hopped up, trying not to infuriate the man any more by fighting him back.

"I've already told you! I'm done fighting for today!"

"Raaaaah!" Barret shouted as he ran towards the man in the red cloak once again.

"Will you just lay off?!" The man asked, now getting annoyed and starting to walk away.

The civilians, not bored anymore, piled outside once again, now with their frappuccinos and caramel lattes.

Barret launched at him once again.

"I have business to take care of!" The strange man shouted, now quite infuriated by his relentless opponent.

"Not until I mess up your face!" Barret grunted as he once again charged at the now annoyed man in the red cloak.

The strange man swiftly thrust his fist out in front of Barret's face, letting him just run into it, making him fall over again. The strange man continued to walk away. Barret looked up and wiped his face, blood streaming down his hand.

"Someone needs to humble you." Barret said as he stood up, not even bothering to leap at him again.

"Really?" The strange man asked as he turned around, his red cloak spinning into place as he swiftly turned.

"Who do you think you are?" Barret asked, his entire body slightly slanted due to his many battle wounds.

"I don't know."

"Neither do I, that's why I'm asking." Barret spat, quite literally, a mixture of blood and saliva dripping down his chin.

"You can call me Vincent, although you won't need to use it much, because I'm leaving."

Barret took a few steps forward.

"Now." Vincent finished as he turned around and started to run in the direction where of Goldfish went.

"Wait-" Barret shouted as he ran after him. "I need to find him too! Those two boys promised me something!" He finished as he ran up to Vincent.

"Then you can search alone." Vincent growled.

"But we're both looking for the same two people!" Barret persisted.

Vincent stopped and turned to him.

"Look-"

Something cracked. No, everything cracked. There must have been a problem with the structure of the plate, it could support cars, trucks, houses even. But for some strange reason the sector 2 plate couldn't hold up two people. Leaving them to fall down hundreds of feet into the cold heart of the slums.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Goldfish was now searching the slums for Zack, hoping to run into Barret too, although he guessed that that wasn't going to happen. Unless they all magical appeared in the same place, that would make life easier.

_Where to start… _He thought, looking around for some kind of exit or clue to where Zack and Yuffie could be.

It was dark now, all he could see were the fine outlines of what looked like a playground and a piece of rubble that resembled a car, maybe it used to be a car.

Then he heard it, the blood curdling cackle of a thousand devils, at least that's what it sounded like.

_That concludes chapter eleven! I am not on FB anymore, but it's the weekend! Yay! _

_I haven't completely planned out _everything, _which means I have planned at least some of the chapters in advance, so if it's starts to sound stupid, then it will get better! I promise!_

_Please comment, fav and follow (if you may :)_

_See you guys next week!_

_-Dragonbytes :)_


	12. Rescue!

_Hey guys! Here's chapter twelve! It's the weekend and I'll probably be writing this whole thing up again in one day since I've been incredibly lazy this entire week! (and studying :)_

_Anyways, happy reading! _

**Chapter 12:**

Denzel was now truly stuck. Stuck between two turks and tied up inside of a helicopter, struggling for his life and wondering what they were going to do with him. He had heard the stories about what the turks did with people that they were done with.

Denzel shuddered at the very thought.

"You cold kid?" Reno asked.

Denzel shook his head and said "no" through the gag, although Reno seemed to have already prepared his joke.

"Well, too bad!" He laughed into Denzel's face, causing him to scooch away due to the stench of toothpaste and coffee coming from Reno's mouth. he continued as Rude let out some low "ha ha's"

Denzel was so ashamed of himself, all those times where Zack had saved his sorry butt and now he just had to be saved again. None of this would've happened if he had just followed Zack's instructions and gone home! Denzel was now on the verge of tears. No! He wouldn't cry in front of the turks.

"I see him, I'll be landing here!" Tseng shouted from the pilot's seat. "Get him ready!"

"Ok kid, time for the show!" Reno cackled as he pulled Denzel up and opened the helicopter door slightly and pulled the gag off of Denzel's mouth.

"You can scream all you want now!" Reno shouted over over the sound of the helicopter coming in through the slit in the door.

He pulled the door open all the way.

"Well, go on! There's no time to waste." Reno prompted.

"Wait, you want me to scream?" Denzel asked, not quite sure whether he should be afraid or concerned.

"Yeah!" Reno said giving him a light shove out of the helicopter. "Let it rip!"

"Why would I do what you're telling me to do?" Denzel asked, crossing his arms.

Reno casually pulled out a long white staff with a black handled and smirked.

"Because of this."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Denzel?!" Zack shouted as he saw the small red headed figure beside the much taller and much more red headed figure inside of the helicopter.

Reno pushed Denzel to the edge of the doorway, causing him to struggle to keep his balance, especially with his wrists tied behind his back. He looked back to Reno and gulped, which he only answered with a smirk.

"ZACK HELP!" He screamed, half of it being because he didn't want to be smacked with a stick, and the other half being out of legitimate fright.

Zack took a step forwards, handing the flier he had received back to Jessie who was having a very exciting day, and putting a hand up in the air to Denzel as if to say, "Everything's going to be alright." Although looking at the expression on his face you would see that he was thinking the exact opposite. Internally Zack was on the verge of going into cardiac arrest. Denzel meant the world to him and he swore that nothing bad could ever happen to him as long as he was alive. But now something bad _was _happening.

"Just, stay calm!" He shouted in the most stable voice he could.

"Jessie, you need to get out of here, these are the turks, and I don't want to wrap you up in all of this." Zack said in as calm a voice he could.

"But-!" Jessie disputed.

"I said go!" Zack shouted, using a tone that persuaded Jessie to tuck her circus fliers to her chest and sprint off in the other direction.

Tseng looked down to the ground where Zack was standing his beat up face glaring up at him, Yuffie flung over his shoulder and let out a chuckle at how pathetic his escape was. Although he didn't see what he was hoping to see, there was no fish with a spiky mess of blonde hair on his head. Tseng's brow furrowed.

"Where's the Goldfish?"

"I don't know!" Zack shouted back, he would've said "I don't know" even if he did know where Goldfish was. But now Denzel was pushed into play and Zack didn't know how to save him, he didn't have what Tseng wanted. And that meant that Tseng no longer needed Denzel.

"Yes you do! Just tell me and you and your friend will be just fine!"

Zack was now sweating, his palms so wet that he had to struggle to keep Yuffie on his shoulder.

"I already told you, I don't know!" Zack persisted, trying to keep his voice from cracking, although it didn't seem to be fooling the turks.

Reno pushed Denzel closer to the edge and he wobbled a bit to keep his balance.

"Denzel!" Zack shouted impulsively as he took another frantic step in the direction of the hovering helicopter.

"I'll ask you this one more time, where is the Goldfish?" Tseng said, motioning for Reno to lower his stick so he could come up behind him, his hand firmly placed on Denzel's shoulder blades, ready to act at any second. Denzel flinched at the touch.

"I already told you!"

Tseng pushed Denzel over the edge, making him scream, but then catching him at the last second by the collar of his shirt. Zack took many more steps towards the helicopter.

"I'm telling you! I don't know!"

"I'll give you five seconds." Tseng said, still holding Denzel up by his collar. "Five."

"If I knew then I would've told you by now!" Zack purseuded, trying desperately to stop the events that were happening before his very eyes.

Tseng released his pinky finger from Denzel's collar letting him fall forward a tiny bit. Denzel, all the while was struggling to keep his toes on the frame of the helicopter door. Tseng's eyes switched their gaze from Denzel to Zack and then back to Denzel, giving Zack a sinister look with his deep brown eyes before preceding to count down another number.

"Four."

"Please! I'm telling the truth-!"

"Three." Tseng was now down to only two fingers and his thumb holding Denzel up.

"Two."

"Stop! Take me instead! I'll do anything! Just let him live!" Zack continued to plead, although Denzel's captors were merciless, they were the turks, murder was their job. Tseng continued on, no sense of feeling in his voice or in his face. He knew what he was doing was wrong, but from his point of view he had to do it, and if something had to be done then his mind made it seem right.

"One." With that Tseng released Denzel, leaving him to tumble to the ground, falling to his death. He flailed his arms wildly as he instinctively tried to keep his balance, although it looked like he was only wiggling his elbows because his hands were still tied behind his back. Denzel's mouth was wide in a long silent scream. Tears of fear stinging the corners of his eyes as the wind hit his face like a solid sheet of paper, tearing with the impact, letting him fall through the page and into what seemed like the grim reapers morbid embrace.

Was this the end?

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

_Crash!_

_Clunk!_

_Clink!_

_Clank!_

_Bang! _

_Crunch!_

_Chink, chank, chunk!_

_CRASH!_

"Ooooouuch!" Barret groaned as he pushed himself up from the ground, each move he made sending shots of pain through his spine. His vision was blurry, and his head was throbbing. Barret reached a hand to feel the top of his head, he felt a hot bump that stung when he ran his fingers over it, making him unleash another, yet softer, "ouch!"

Once Barret's vision cleared and his mind was set straight once more, he noticed something, where was tha strange man in the red cloak? Or what was his name? Vincent! That was his name! Vincent! But, where was he?

Barret pushed himself to his feet and brushed off the dust and pebbles from his pants, looking around for a scarlet cloak. He saw nothing. Not even the tiniest trace of him, so he began to search harder, digging through rubble and the overall mountain of junk that they had made in their tumble into the slums.

"Vincent?" Barret asked as he kept on making his way through the almost neverending pile of junk.

"Dammit!" He growled, rather annoyed at how concerned he was about a guy he had just met, but then again he was always like that, and he hated how trusting he could be with strangers. He had found two new members for his rebellion, but he now had no job and was an outlaw for aiding in the escape of two other outlaws who he had never met before. Barret could be quite gullible sometimes, but he was always loyal, even to strangers.

Then Barret lifted up a metal beam and saw something scarlet buried underneath, seeing this he quickened his pace of digging through the rubble. He sent playground toys, car hoods and other pieces of junk flying past his head, until alas! Barret found him buried under a refrigerator, struggling to lift the enormous and extremely heavy cooling machine off of his strange acquaintance. Barret saw that Vincent was unconscious, although he was puzzled by the fact that if your skin could heal itself yet you could still lose consciousness. Barret shrugged and continued pulling Vincent's scarlet cloak so that he could squeeze him out of the crevice he was wedged into. Although, through his plight to dig a vampire out of a hole, he failed to notice the little red eyes that were staring at him.

Barret grinned in triumph as he heaved the limp pale faced man out from beneath the refrigerator and slapped his face a few times, although to his avail there was no reaction.

He slapped his face again. Still no reaction. Barret was now wondering why he was wasting his time trying to help a stranger, but then his natural instinct to help another living creature kicked in. Since figuring out that a slap wasn't going to work, Barret decided that he need something that would give a bit more of a kick...such as a metal staff! Since he wouldn't be hurt, Barret decided that if he gave him a nice whack it would save time and it would be practically harmless.

Barret dug around in the rubble that the two had made during their way down, and once he went through more engine parts and glass containers full of what looked like a science experiment using mold, he found the perfect metal pipe to whack his acquaintance with.

Without hesitation Barret ran over to the pale faced man and whacked him firmly with the metal pipe, and without hesitation Vincent leaped up and took a firm hold onto Barret's neck. Barret dropped the metal pipe in shock and grasped the two hands that were gripping his neck. Vincent's face was contorted in a painful and incredibly irritated look, his left eye was twitching and the large red lump that Barret had made was slowly disappearing back into the man's skin.

"That...HURT!" Vincent shouted as Barret's face turned an alarming shade of fire hydrant red.

"It probably did." Barret choked. "But would you mind letting go of my neck?!"

Vincent winced as the bump on his head slowly went back down and spread back into his skin. And then gradually, he let loose on Barret's windpipe.

"It was the only way to wake you up!" Barret defended.

"Yeah right." Vincent scoffed as he massaged the spot on his head that was once a swollen, red lump.

Barret was about to retort a clever reply, but then heard something even better to mock to strange man with. He heard what sounded like a grumble coming from the man's stomach.

"Somebody's hungry." Barret smirked.

Vincent laughed.

"I'm guessing that you're referring to yourself?"

Barret's large brown eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.

"Wait, you mean that _wasn't_ you?"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Denzel thought he was going to die. Zack thought that Denzel was going to die. Tseng thought that Denzel was going to die. Goldfish thought not.

The blonde whizzed as if he was a streak of light and caught the falling boy, embracing him for a few seconds and then throwing him over his shoulder, not particularly worrying about comforting the boy that was most probably in shock, but paying more attention to the tiny creatures who were sprinting at a furious pace behind him.

At this point in time, Zack didn't really know what to think anymore, but his eyes grew in terror when he spotted the horde of charging goblins making their way towards him.

If there was anything that Zack never ever wanted to go through ever again in his entire life, was facing the goblins again.

But now it seemed that he wasn't, because before he could say "goldfish" there was one gripping his wrist and dragging him towards a gate.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Goldfish said frantically as he sprinted away from the horde.

Tseng, meanwhile was furious, yet somewhat worried, he knew that The President didn't particularly appreciate it when he didn't get what he wanted. And now he almost had him, had he just been a tad more patient with letting the boy go, then he would have been able to apprehend the Goldfish. The opportunity, quite literally, slipped through his fingertips as if it was grains of sand. Seeing that they had no chance of apprehending him since they were in a helicopter and the two escapees were running for their lives on the ground below, Tseng ordered Reno and Rude to fly the helicopter back to headquarters. He glared out the window with a look of sinister desire plastered onto his face.

"I'll get you next time."

The two boys ran as quickly as they could towards the gate leading out of that section of the slums. Goldfish took one glance back at the goblins and yelped in terror. They were the most terrifying things that he had faced since the frightening run in with The President.

Goldfish quickened his pace, and seeing that Zack wasn't particularly up for running a marathon with a teenager flung across his shoulder, took Yuffie into his arms as well along with the now unconscious red head.

The small creatures were gaining on them, little step by little step they somehow managed, despite their tiny, chubby and orange legs, to run faster than a man who had been genetically modified to be both faster and stronger than an average adult.

Through the gate Goldfish spotted a truck, and the back was empty. A man with gray hair, denim overalls and a green cap stepped in and fired up the engine. This could be their only chance! Now seeing that Zack wasn't up for running a marathon even without a teenager flung across his shoulder, Goldfish picked him up too. he then finished up the final strides to get to the truck, Goldfish flung the three people that he was carrying into the back of the truck and then hopped into the back of the pickup truck himself.

"We don't care where you're going, just go!" Goldfish shouted urgently, gasping for air.

"Hey! What're you kids do-?!" The man disputed.

"We'll pay you back...someday." Zack added. "But right now you need to pedal to the medal, Pops!"

Oblivious to the incoming horde of goblin teddy bears, the man let out a sigh of annoyance and pushed on the gas pedal and sped away just as the goblins were climbing up on the the back of the truck, the sudden speed change knocking them off and leaving them in the dust.

After a few heaves for breath from the two boys and a few miles out of the city, the two were wondering where, in fact, they were going, and starting to feel a little guilty about leaving Barret behind. But they were sure, he was getting along fine, right?

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

...Barret lifted up a lead pipe and smashed it onto the munchkin that was biting his leg's head. Meanwhile Vincent was shooting his two pistols in all directions, trying to both kill them and get them to go away. The two then looked up, already exhausted from fighting hundreds, it seemed, of the little monsters, and saw more little red eyes, glaring at them through the curtain of darkness. They unleashed an ear-splitting battle cry and then the little red eyes began to come closer, Although Barret and Vincent fought as hard as they could, killing as many as they could, it seemed that they multiplied by the second, more and more of them piling in at them by the minute…

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Yeah, he'd be fine… But that left the other matter that was to be taken care of.

"Hey, Pops, where are we going?" Zack asked, Denzel resting against his chest, his red hair blowing in the wind.

The man in the green cap looked back and smiled, showing many gold teeth and unhealthy looking gums along with his silver mustache.

"Nibelheim, no exceptions and no refunds." He stated gruffly.

"Nibelheim…" Zack said. "Hey! I might have been there before!" He said excitedly. "What about you?" He asked, looking to Goldfish.

"Nibelheim, huh? Never heard of it before…"

_And so that ends chapter twelve of Mr Goldfish Strife!_

_Sorry, it so long...it took way too long! And I most definitely didn't take one day!_

_Well, Happy Halloween (a very late Halloween) and I'll see you guys next week (or so)!_

_Please comment and favorite (oh yeah and you can always follow too :)_

_-Dragonbytes :)_


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